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How Rudeness Can Negatively Affect Your Mind

Being exposed to someone who is rude can be unsettling, especially when it is completely unprovoked. New research shows how rudeness also affects your ability to think clearly.

When was the last time someone was unnecessarily rude to you? Perhaps you were happily minding your own business while reaching for an item on a high shelf at the drugstore. Unaware of the person standing behind you, you happened to step back and bumped into their foot. It was an innocent mistake, so you couldn’t understand why this person tapped you on the shoulder and yelled at you for being so clumsy. If you were in their place, you know you wouldn’t react with such venomous rage. Unsettled by the whole episode, you find that you can’t even concentrate on what else you were supposed to pick up at the store and leave empty-handed.
Rudeness and the Ability to Concentrate
As it turns out, the mental effects of exposure to rudeness have actually been studied in the laboratory. According to Carnegie Mellon University’s Binyamin Cooper and colleagues (2022), rudeness constitutes a “low intensity negative behavior that violates norms of civility” that can actually interfere with a person’s ability to get work done (p. 481). In the extreme, rudeness can even have life-or-death consequences. Previous research shows that medical personnel exposed to rudeness not only “perform at suboptimal levels” but also could actually make poor decisions with lethal consequences.
What might account for the detrimental effects of rudeness on someone’s mental capacity? Reflecting on the shopping example, you might be able to resonate with the idea that when you’re the target of an unprovoked attack, you simply cannot think straight.
The type of mental draining that Cooper and his colleagues believe has the most negative impact on an individual relates to the process of “anchoring.” This is a mental bias that occurs when people fixate on one idea to the exclusion of other possibilities. In the words of the authors, it “appears to pose a significant risk to the quality of individual judgment” (p. 482).
In their theoretical model, rudeness has this impact on your ability to think because it engenders negative arousal (sadness, anger). This pathway is further influenced by a loss of the ability to engage in perspective-taking, where you think about a situation from someone else’s point of view. You also become unable to lay out the ordinary set of possible solutions to the problems that face you. It’s as if you zero in on one idea, fixate on that, and become unable to see any alternatives. The problem occurs when that first thought is actually wrong.
Putting Rudeness to the Test
As indicated in the title of the study, “Trapped by a First Hypothesis,” the first step in testing their theoretical model required that the research team trap their participants by exposing them to rudeness and then seeing how their thought processes evolved as a result. Across a series of three studies, as well as a pilot, a combination of medical students and online participants imagined themselves in simulated situations that, in the rudeness condition, involved someone speaking to them in a highly inappropriate manner.
For example, in one study, participants were to imagine themselves as bookstore employees when a customer complained about the advertised price of a book being too high. In the rude condition, the customer said: “What kind of bookstore is this? Are you all a bunch of idiots who work here or something? There’s a sign there saying all the books in that area are SEVEN DOLLARS. It’s not that complicated—you put the price on a book, and that’s what it costs. It doesn’t take a genius to do that, but maybe that’s asking too much from someone who works at a bookstore. Forget it; I don’t want it.”
To assess the impact of rudeness on anchoring, the researchers used several variants of a task in which participants could be led to settle on an incorrect answer without considering others. In one of these, participants answered whether Mount Everest’s height is greater or less than 45,000 feet (anchoring) and then, in the second question, simply guessed what they thought the mountain’s height is. Anchoring would be shown by the extent to which the freely given answer was closer to the anchor than the actual height (which is 29,029 feet).
To examine whether the effect of rudeness could be mitigated, the research team investigated the effects of various manipulations such as giving participants a chance to engage in perspective-taking and an exercise that challenged them to think in more depth about the problem.
In this well-controlled and imaginative study, the authors were able to tease apart the various components of their overall model. The findings were consistent with the model’s predictions and showed that although exposure to rudeness engendered such negative emotions as anger, hostility, and disgust, the effect of this negative arousal on anchoring could be offset by simple interventions. These “rays of hope” (p. 495) can therefore provide an antidote to the effect of rudeness on an individual’s ability to think rationally.
Offsetting Rudeness in Your Own Life
With these findings in mind, you may now have a better idea of what it is about being subjected to rudeness that can be so deleterious to your mental ability. The raw emotions that become triggered narrow your focus and make it difficult for you to think of anything else other than the horribleness of the situation.
You don’t have to remain trapped in those negative emotions, however. You may not feel like thinking nice things (perspective-taking) about the person who wronged you, at least not in the heat of the situation. However, you can take advantage of information elaboration by forcing yourself to stick to the task at hand and figure out various ways to tackle it. In other words, as you roam about that drugstore boiling over with anger at the person who reacted so harshly to you, pull out the list you came in there with or just stop and think about all the items you could possibly need by looking up and down each aisle.
These situations can also help you develop your own resistance to becoming a rude person yourself. Knowing how harmful this behavior can be, it might be helpful for you to consider the value of civility the next time you’re tempted to lash out at a stranger.
To sum up, positive relationships benefit interpersonal civility as well as mental agility. Rudeness is unpleasant to encounter in your daily life, but it doesn’t have to rule your rationality.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202303/how-rudeness-can-negatively-affect-your-mind
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What COVID Can Teach Us About Stress Management

Different coping styles tell us a lot about healthy eating

Now that COVID is somewhat behind us, we have some space to stop and reflect. We can remember the days when masks were mandatory, lockdowns were frequent, and many businesses were shutting down (except, of course, hospitals).
Some of us used the time to down-regulate our lives, taking advantage of a less hectic lifestyle. Others’ lives became even more hectic as schools closed, and daycare was a non-starter. Job insecurity became a huge issue. Supply chains were questionable. Not to mention the loss of loved ones and acquaintances.
And we had no idea when things were going to improve, at least until a vaccine became widely available. That first year was quite a challenge, and there was nowhere to go. It was a worldwide health threat.
COVID Anxiety and the Consumption of Junk Foods
A couple of studies presented in a 2022 research paper (Juad and Lunardo) looked at anxiety during 2020 in adults aged 18-35 in the United Kingdom and France. Their background research showed that this age group tended to struggle more with anxiety than older adults, showing a greater tendency to feel isolated, overwhelmed, and helpless.
This particular study decided to look at the uptick in eating junk foods (high-calorie, processed foods) and sugary drinks as a coping strategy for pandemic anxiety. Juad and Lunardo also found that there were specific coping strategies used by some individuals that did not lead to continued states of anxiety and turning to compensatory eating practices.
They discovered that feelings of helplessness caused many individuals to have a lower acceptance of the situation. Helplessness indicates a general feeling of not having the ability to find a way to cope with the situation. This is known as low self-efficacy.
Individuals who felt helpless tended to eat more junk food (often accompanied by weight gain) during the first year of the pandemic. On the other hand, those who were able to accept the situation were then able to develop positive coping strategies. As a result, they did not turn to junk food as a coping strategy.
Anxiety and Self-Efficacy
Other research has explored the connection between helplessness and feelings of low-self efficacy. Low self-efficacy can lead to ignoring or rejecting positive coping strategies that a person does not feel capable of performing. The opposite would be self-efficacy, or a person’s belief in their ability to find and use coping strategies to achieve a goal or complete a task.
These same concepts are evident when designing behavior change interventions that promote a healthy eating style compatible with maintaining a healthy weight.
What do they have in common? Both have to do with conquering the negativity that comes with stress that can leave a person stuck in an unproductive belief system. Without self-efficacy on board, it is easy to stay focused on the negative, use negative self-talk, and stay in black-and-white thinking. These patterns can lead a person to think that changing the situation is impossible.
The question is, can some interventions increase self-efficacy, and if so, how?
The Role of Stress Management
A study in 2022 (Carfora, Morandi, and Catellani) identified several techniques that had a positive effect on developing dietary self-efficacy. Self-monitoring, feedback on performance, review of behavioral goals, setting up a reward system, and social support all increased dietary self-efficacy.
The kicker was that stress management was consistently associated with self-efficacy across all analyses and came out as the strongest indicator.
This finding takes us right back to what was happening during COVID with regard to turning to unhealthy foods. Anxiety is a big part of stress. Jaud and Lunardo found a huge association between being able to handle the anxiety of an uncontrollable situation like the pandemic and the ability to make healthy food choices. That association points to the role of self-efficacy when handling the stress of the situation.
Rewriting Stress
Getting back to the question of whether self-efficacy can be increased, it would appear that stress management plays a key role. Taking it a step further, what actions can be taken to respond to stress that will lower its effect on us?
As Jaud and Lunardo indicated, the ability to accept the situation could then serve as the basis for developing coping strategies leading to the ability to maintain healthy eating during the pandemic.
Other research has supported several techniques used to reduce stress and develop coping strategies when designing healthy eating interventions. These techniques have been proven effective time and again. These strategies can be applied to the successful management of stress during challenging times, such as the pandemic, as well as using behavior change interventions in healthy eating or weight-loss programs.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/health-and-human-nature/202303/what-covid-can-teach-us-about-stress-management
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Why Do So Many Couples Divorce After 8 Years?

The infamous seven-year itch is real. How to avoid becoming a statistic.

KEY POINTS
Statistics show that the average length of first marriages when couples divorce is eight years.
The underlying dynamic is that our needs have changed over time, and the structure we've built no longer fits us. Couples divorce or distract.
The key is paying attention to feelings of restlessness and using them as information to update the relationship contract.
ccording to the census bureau, the average length of first marriages for divorcing couples is 8.2 years, the infamous seven-year-itch. But why seven instead of, say, 11 or 15? Good question. Here’s the thinking.

Adult development moves in roughly seven-year blocks.
It’s a given that we not only change as we move through our adult lives, but as researchers such as Levinson, Vaillant, and Sheehy have found, there’s something about that six–10-year zone: roughly seven years of stability and then two to three years of restlessness and transition before settling into the next stage. Sometimes the focus is on work and career—needing to take that job in Chicago—sometimes about aging and long-term plans, sometimes about working through your childhood and your relationship with parents—but sometimes about your intimate relationship.

In the Beginning
When you first fell in love, you psychologically needed something in your life—to get away from your parents, have stability or a baby, to feel important or cared for. While often never directly talked about, the other person provided this. You unconsciously made a deal: I’ll give you your #1 thing, and you give me mine.

Building a Life
In the first couple of years, you build a life with rules and routines together, so you have stability and do not have to invent your life anew every day: Who takes out the trash, how often does my mother come over for dinner, who initiates sex? Some couples never get through this stage—they argue about lifestyle and expectations and get divorced—but most of us make it.

The Crisis
But five, six, seven, or eight years in, one (or usually both) partner gets restless. The life they've built with its rules and routines is no longer working or fits. Why? Because your partner did a great job filling that Year-one need—you left home, have stability or a baby, felt needed—and now your needs have changed. But you’re stuck in this box of a life you’ve created, and what you often most liked about the other person is now driving you crazy: The solid, steady, grounding one now seems rigid and controlling; the spontaneous, fun-loving one is a bit too dramatic.
Break Out or Distract
This is the seven-year itch. Couples start arguing or pulling away. Someone has an affair. The underlying message is: “This is not working; I’m outta here. starting over,” and they divorce. And two or three years later, they remarry and start the process all over again.

Or instead of arguing, they don’t. They do their best to sidestep all these emotions and distract, focusing on kids—10 soccer games a week, ballet lessons—downshifting from being a couple to only being mom and dad. Or they focus on jobs and careers, working 80 hours a week to get that promotion, or they distract with something else—starting a dog kennel or buying a boat and waterskiing every weekend. If you go the distraction route, like those who divorce, you’re good for maybe another eight years—till the kids turn teenagers and your parenting is winding down, till you get that promotion and are bored or burnt out from your job and heading into your big midlife crisis. The restlessness and feeling trapped in the box of your life rears its head again.

The Challenge
Sounds depressing, but not inevitable. Instead of divorce or distraction, the challenge is to pay attention to that restlessness and those emotions and use them as information, helping you to take stock and see what you need now. Yes, you’ve grown out of the box of a life you’ve created, but you don’t need to start over from scratch or endure. Instead, you want to upgrade the relationship contract from year one. Decide what you each need to change—less heavy lifting and more teamwork, less feeling dismissed and more being heard, less frantic a lifestyle and more a settled one, more intimacy and sex.

And if you need help sorting out what you need, or can’t have these conversations easily on your own, get support from a therapist, a minister, or someone. These are important crossroads in your psychological life. Don’t go down the wrong path.

References

U.S. Census Bureau (2021). Number, timing, and duration of marriages and divorces 2016. Washington, D.C.

Levinson, D. (1986). The seasons of a man's life. New York: Ballantine.

Vaillant, G. (2015). Triumphs of experience. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.

Link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fixing-families/202304/why-do-so-many-couples-divorce-after-8-years
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I Can’t Live Without Her: When Grieving Men Die

A new study finds differences between men and women in the “widowhood effect.”

KEY POINTS
The death of a spouse affects people differently, but many experience negative health effects.
Men and women are affected differently by the death of a spouse.
Man have a higher likelihood of dying themselves after the death of their spouse than women do.
What is the worst thing that you could imagine happening to you?

For many people, it's the death of their spouse. Accordingly, many people experience grief, stress, and negative physical health effects when their spouse dies. Others, however, are largely unaffected by such a tragic event. Which factors determine how somebody is affected by the death of their spouse is not well understood in psychological research.

A new study on differences between men and women in the widowhood effect
One commonly investigated phenomenon in the context of the death of a spouse is the so-called "widowhood effect." The widowhood effect postulates that if one spouse dies, the other one has an increased chance of also dying, compared to other people of the same age. The widowhood effect reflects that the death of a spouse is a highly stressful life event that increases the chance of negative health events like heart attacks in the surviving person.

A study just published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE investigates whether the widowhood effect may be influenced by the biological sex of the surviving spouse (Katsiferis et al., 2023). In the study, led by scientist Alexandros Katsiferis from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, the research teams analyzed data from a large Danish study on more than 900,000 people over the age of 65. The scientists looked at the amount of money spent on healthcare by people who suffered the loss of a spouse and the amount spent by people who didn't. This was done to assess whether the loss of a spouse was associated with an increase in health problems. The researchers also analyzed whether people who experienced the loss of their spouse had a higher chance of dying compared to people who did not lose their spouse.

Men are more likely to die after the death of their spouse than women
Overall, about 8.4 percent of people in the study experienced the loss of their spouse. About 65.8 percent of these people who lost their spouses were women, reflecting that, on average, men die earlier than women.

For healthcare costs, there was a clear difference between men and women. Men who lost their spouse spent an average of 42 Euros per week more, while the increase for women was only 35 Euros, suggesting that men experience more health problems after the death of their spouse than do women.

A difference between men and women was also observed in the chance of dying after the death of a spouse, but here age also had an influence. The scientists found out that among those 65 to 69, men had a 70 percent increased chance of also dying in the first year after the death of their spouse. For women in the same age group, the increase was much lower, only 27 percent. This general pattern of males having a higher chance of dying after their spouse’s death remained the same in all other age groups in the study (70 to 74 years, 75 to 79 years, 80 to 84 years, older than 85), but the overall percentages got lower with increasing age.
Taken together, the study showed that men aged 65 to 69 years are most strongly affected by the widowhood effect. In general, men experience a stronger widowhood effect than women. Interestingly, an analysis of timing effects showed that men also showed an increase in the probability of dying after their spouse’s death for much longer than women. The scientists suggested that this reflects increased problems in men returning to a normal, functioning state after experiencing the loss of their spouse. Women seem to show higher resilience to stress in the situation and better psychological coping mechanisms to return to a normal life. These findings clearly suggest that men (and women) who experience the loss of their spouse should seek help and support from family, friends, or a therapist to deal with stress and grief and not “tough it out.”
References

Katsiferis A, Bhatt S, Mortensen LH, Mishra S, Westendorp RGJ. (2023). Sex differences in health care expenditures and mortality after spousal bereavement: A register-based Danish cohort study. PLoS One, 18, e0282892.
Link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-asymmetric-brain/202304/i-cant-live-without-her-when-grieving-men-die
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A New Hope for Building Your Emotional Intelligence

New research shows the skill that can make you more emotionally intelligent.

Do you ever wonder whether it’s better to show your emotions or to keep them hidden? Perhaps your hairstylist cuts your hair much shorter than you asked for. Do you decide it’s better just to wait till it grows back in (and find a different stylist), or should you let the manager know how infuriated you are? Either strategy has pros and cons, so which is the lesser of the two evils?
According to a recent study by the University of Catania’s Maria Quattropani and colleagues (2022), most situations present two starkly different alternatives for managing your emotions, and it is indeed often hard to know which way to react. The key to healthy adjustment, they argued, isn’t always being right about your choice but being able to see that there is indeed a choice.
They noted that “flexibility in emotion regulation represents a central tenet for overall psychological adjustment” (p. 698). In other words, some situations call for expression, and some for suppression. Even if you take the wrong turn in this dilemma, at least you’re able to see that life often presents more gray than black-and-white areas when it comes to handling your emotions.
Emotional Flexibility and Its Measurement
You might think that all of these choices would depend on the quality of your emotional intelligence. But what if your emotional intelligence isn’t all that high? Are you stuck in an endless loop of constantly saying and doing the wrong thing?
The idea of emotional flexibility can become your saving grace. Even if you don’t top out at the positive end of the emotional intelligence curve, Quattropani et al.’s research suggested using emotional flexibility as your go-to alternative skill.
You can get an idea of what this quality looks like by seeing where you rate on the measure the Italian research team used, the “Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression” scale, abbreviated as “FREE” (Burton & Bonanno, 2016). To complete this scale, you put yourself into 16 situations that fall into four categories based on the emotion involved in the situation (positive or negative) and your reaction to that emotion (express or conceal). For each, you are to rate yourself from “unable” to “very able” to be even more expressive of how you were feeling.

See how you would do on these four sample items:
Positive-Expressive: You receive a gift from a family member, but it’s a shirt you dislike.
Negative-Expressive: Your friend is telling you about what a terrible day they had.
Positive-Conceal: You are in a training session and see an accidentally funny typo in the presenter’s slideshow.
Negative-Conceal: You are at a social event, and the person you’re talking to frequently spits while they speak.
How did you do? Were you perhaps confused by the positive-negative distinction? The thinking behind this scale is that you are able to use cues from context to decide whether to show or hide your feelings. Thus, someone giving you a shirt you don’t like for a present would be a situation in which you would be expected to show positive emotions even though you don’t feel them.
In the scenario involving the typo, there is a positive emotion that you feel that you need to conceal or else face condemnation from others in the room (even though they may have the same reactions as you do).
Tying Emotional Flexibility to Mental Health
The U. Catania researchers translated FREE items into Italian (and double-checked them for meaning) and administered them to an online sample of 503 adults ages 21 to 72 (average 29 years old), most of whom (85 percent) were female. In addition to the FREE scale, participants completed measures that, combined, assess the trait of emotional intelligence: well-being, self-control, typical emotionality, and sociability. The research team included 12-item standard symptom checklists to assess mental and physical health.
Using a statistical model that allowed them to evaluate each possible predictor of health separately, Quattropani and her associates demonstrated that, consistent with previous emotional intelligence research, those four trait-like qualities predicted positive health outcomes. However, even after taking these scores into account, FREE scores added their predictive value, with enhancement negatively and suppression positively relating to psychological well-being. Thus, less enhancement and more suppression seemed to provide the magic formula for emotional flexibility’s relation to positive outcomes.
Training Your Emotional Flexibility
If you take as your starting point your assessment of your emotional intelligence (honestly appraised) and find that you don’t think you’re all that adept, the Italian findings provide hope that change may be possible. Putting yourself back into those scenarios now, imagine whether it’s good to put on a show of tremendous happiness at a gift you don’t like. Based on these findings, it’s not. This may be because other people can sense that you’re going overboard in your reaction and therefore become offended or because you’re making yourself feel something you don’t.
Conversely, in suppression scenarios, covering up an emotion inappropriate to the situation for different reasons may benefit you in other ways. Your job is to use your emotions to foster good relationships and attend to your psychological health. A small degree of covering up may allow you to accomplish both goals.
Looking at the larger picture, you can now see why the quality of emotional flexibility can be so important. You don’t want to go through life always showing the same emotion or over- or under-expressing your feelings. Gauging how you react to the dual demands of situations and your inner state can help you make up for whatever you lack in your basic emotional intelligence.

To Sum Up
Your route down the pathway to fulfillment is greatly eased by being high in your ability to read people, situations, and your inner state. Practicing the skill of emotional flexibility can help you find the ideal balance as you adapt to life’s many emotional quandaries.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202303/a-new-hope-for-building-your-emotional-intelligence
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Is Exercise as Effective as Medications or Talk Therapy?

A large meta-review suggests it is.

In the United States, when someone is experiencing a chronic health condition or persistent negative mood states, medications or talk therapy tend to be first to the rescue. Exercise is sometimes relegated to the category of “complementary and alternative medicine” for those who have tried medications and therapy and found them to be “ineffective” based on either provider opinion or a patient’s experience of subjective relief. However, this is not the case everywhere. In countries like Australia, behavioral approaches coined “lifestyle management,” which include exercise, is considered a front-line approach.
A new meta-review by a group of behavioral scientists from the University of South Australia highlighted the equivalence of physical activity to medications and psychotherapy in the treatment of depression, anxiety, various chronic diseases, and maintenance of overall health. The current findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that physical activity has a medium effect size on depression, anxiety, and chronic disease, which is larger than the typical small effect sizes found in behavioral health research. This association improved with increased intensity of movement compared to treatment as usual. Critically, the effect size for physical activity on depression (median effect size = -0.43) and on anxiety (median effect size = -0.42) was comparable, though slightly greater, than medication or therapy (median effect size ranges = -0.22 to -0.37).
Though there have been dozens of randomized controlled trials or meta-analytic studies exploring the positive health impacts of exercise, they are typically limited due to examining very narrow demographics at a time, which may not generalize well to the larger population. The authors of the newest study attempted to include as many forms of physical activity as possible without focusing on specific subgroups of any one population to see what patterns emerged from data, which included over 128,000 participants across 1,039 clinical trials.
Any adult 18 years or older who participated in a research trial that aimed to increase physical activity was included in the analysis. Physical activity was defined as “any bodily movement produced by the contraction of skeletal muscles that results in a substantial increase in caloric requirements over resting energy expenditure.” The physical activity intervention had to occur across time (versus a single physical activity event, like a one-time marathon). Studies which included confounding variables in their intervention such as dietary changes, medications, or psychotherapy were excluded to be able to highlight the impact of physical activity alone on health outcomes. Participants included in the study ranged from 29 to 86 years old, with a median age of 55 years old.
Results showed depression and depressive symptoms were significantly reduced with a medium effect size as a result of physical activity in over 62,000 participants across 875 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from 72 meta-analyses. Anxiety symptoms were significantly reduced with a medium effect size as a result of physical activity in over 10,000 participants across 171 RCTs from 28 meta-analyses. Psychological distress significantly reduced with a medium effect size in more than 500 participants across six RCTs from one systematic review. Importantly, effect sizes varied highly by the assessment instrument used, highlighting the importance of measurement-based care, utilizing validated screening tools to assess symptomology in patients and research participants.
Perhaps even more promising than the massive number of participants for whom these impacts of physical activity on mood symptoms held true is the finding that all modes of exercise were effective in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms. Regardless of strength-based movement, mind-body practices like yoga and tai chi, aerobic exercise, or mixed-mode exercises which include both aerobic and resistance training, exercise was shown to be effective in improving negative emotions and health distress. Higher intensity exercises were found to be more effective in ameliorating depression symptoms than lower or moderate-intensity exercises, while both moderate and higher intensity physical activity was found to be effective for reducing anxiety symptoms.
As the overall physical activity treatment was extended beyond 12 weeks, the amount of reduction in mood symptoms paradoxically diminished. This highlights the importance of structuring physical activity interventions for discrete periods of time, consistent with how individuals set effective behavioral goals, compared to giving patients open-ended guidance on physical activity which is not time-bound. Limiting physical activity interventions to a “sweet spot” of roughly three months is also more effective for patients, medical systems, and payers alike, reducing the burden of healthcare costs while maximizing health outcomes.
Weekly physical activity close to or under 150 minutes each week is ideal, compared to exercise beyond 150 minutes weekly which showed diminishing health impacts. Exercising a moderate amount, of 4-5 times per week, was found to be more closely tied to better mood than exercising at higher frequency like daily or at lower frequency like only 1-2 times each week. For anyone wondering what the optimal length of an exercise session may be, the authors found 30-60 minute exercise sessions are most effective. Given the potential benefits of physical activity as an intervention and the minimal negative side effects, it stands to reason that exercise should be considered a front-line approach for mood and chronic health problems when possible. Or at least, exercise should be given equal consideration as medications and psychotherapy for improving health outcomes.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts/202303/is-exercise-as-effective-as-medications-or-talk
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Does Having a Baby Actually Make Parents Happy?

The first year tends to be great. The fifth, not so much.

For many couples, having a baby is one of their greatest wishes in life. But does having a baby really make parents happier? And if yes, how long does this baby bliss last? A new study published in the journal Emotion focused on answering these questions (Asselmann & Specht, 2023).
A New Study on How Parents Feel After Having a Baby
In the study, German scientists Eva Asselmann and Jule Specht analyzed data from more than 5,000 first-time parents from the German Socio-Economic Panel, a large-scale cohort study that started in 1984. All parents included in the study had experienced the birth of their first child between 2007 and 2019. The parents were interviewed yearly and asked about a number of different things. These included life satisfaction (“How satisfied are you currently with your life as a whole?”), as well as happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger in the four weeks before the interview. These data were analyzed from five years before the couple became parents to five years after they became parents.
A Surprising Result
The scientists found out that having a baby changes psychological well-being in several ways.
The most pronounced effect was a strong increase in life satisfaction and happiness in the first year of parenthood – so baby bliss is indeed real! However, life satisfaction and happiness gradually bounced back in the years following the baby’s birth. Altogether, couples showed similar levels of life satisfaction and happiness five years after becoming parents compared to five years before becoming parents.
Regarding negative emotions, the strongest effect was found for anger. Anger decreases in the five years before a couple becomes parents and reaches its lowest point during the first year of parenthood. After that, it increases, and five years after the baby was born, anger was even larger than five years before the baby was born.
The authors of the study suggested that these higher anger levels reflect a reaction due to the stressful aspects of being a parent, such as sleep deprivation or time conflicts between family and work. For sadness and anxiety, the effects were only small. Sadness showed similar effects to anger but did not reach higher levels five years after the baby was born compared to five years before the baby was born, and anxiety gradually increased the five years before the baby was born, which may reflect anticipation effects.
An analysis of gender effects revealed that mothers experienced a more substantial increase in happiness and life satisfaction than fathers but also experienced stronger anger effects. The study's authors suggested that biological factors or gender role expectations may explain this effec.
Take-Away: Baby Bliss Lasts for a Short Time
Taken together, the results of the study clearly show that baby bliss exists. In the first year of a baby’s life, the parents are happier and more satisfied with their life than before. However, this effect only lasts shortly and when the child is five years old, both happiness and life satisfaction of his or her parents had bounced back to the level they were at five years before the child was born.
Moreover, anger levels rise, reflecting the stressful aspects of parenthood. This shows that having a baby has a lot of positive short-term effects on psychological well-being, but for high long-term life satisfaction, it is essential to find strategies to cope with the stressful aspects of having a child.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-asymmetric-brain/202303/baby-bliss-does-having-a-baby-make-parents-happy
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Virtual reality app trial offers new hope for people suffering from phobias

There’s great potential for the use of VR and mobile phone apps as a means of self-guided treatment for people struggling with often-crippling phobias.

Results from a University of Otago, Christchurch trial suggest fresh hope for the estimated one-in-twelve people worldwide suffering from a fear of flying, needles, heights, spiders and dogs.

The trial, led by Associate Professor Cameron Lacey, from the Department of Psychological Medicine, studied phobia patients using a headset and a smartphone app treatment program – a combination of Virtual Reality (VR) 360-degree video exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Participants downloaded a fully self-guided smartphone app called "oVRcome", developed by Christchurch tech entrepreneur Adam Hutchinson, aimed at treating patients with phobia and anxiety.

The app was paired with a headset to immerse participants in virtual environments to help treat their phobia.

The results from the trial, just published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, showed a 75 per cent reduction in phobia symptoms after six weeks of the treatment programme.
"Participants demonstrated a strong acceptability of the app, highlighting its potential for delivering easily accessible, cost-effective treatment at scale, of particular use for those unable to access in-person exposure therapy to treat their phobias."

A total of 129 people took part in the six-week randomised, controlled trial, between May 2021 and December 2021, with a 12-week follow-up. Participants needed to be aged between 18-64 years, have a fear of either flying, heights, needles, spiders and dogs. They were emailed weekly questionnaires to record their progress. Those experiencing adverse events could request contact from a clinical psychologist at any stage.

"Participants experiencing all five types of phobia showed comparable improvements in the Severity Measures for Specific Phobia scale over the course of the trial. The average severity score decreased from 28/40 (moderate to severe symptoms) to 7/40 (minimal symptoms) after six weeks. There were no participant withdrawals due to intervention-related adverse events.

"The oVRcome app involves what's called "exposure therapy", a form of CBT exposing participants to their specific phobias in short bursts, to build up their tolerance to the phobia in a clinically-approved and controlled way," Associate Professor Lacey says.
"Some participants reported significant progress in overcoming their phobias after the trial period, with one feeling confident enough to now book an overseas family holiday, another lining up for a Covid vaccine and another reporting they now felt confident not only knowing there was a spider in the house but that they could possibly remove it themselves."

The app program consisted of standard CBT components including psychoeducation, relaxation, mindfulness, cognitive techniques, exposure through VR, and a relapse prevention model. Participants were able to select their own exposure levels to their particular phobia from a large library of VR videos.

"This means the levels of exposure therapy could be tailored to an individual's needs which is a particular strength. The more traditional in-person exposure treatment for specific phobias have a notoriously high dropout rate due to discomfort, inconvenience and a lack of motivation in people seeking out fears to expose themselves to. With this VR app treatment, triallists had increased control in exposure to their fears, as well as control over when and where exposure occurs," says Associate Professor Lacey.

The researchers say this trial was novel, due to the cost-effective availability of the app and headsets and the fact that multiple phobias were tested at once. They say most comparative VR studies to date have investigated high-end VR devices which are only available in research and limited clinical settings. One Dutch study examined a low-cost VR Dutch-language program using animated imagery that demonstrated improvement in fear-of-height symptoms, however this study only examined a single type of specific phobia.

Associate Professor Lacey says public demand to take part in the trial was unprecedented, demonstrating the increasing need and desire for phobia treatment in the community.

"An estimated ten per cent of New Zealanders have been hesitant to take part in the government's COVID-19 vaccination program due to needle phobia. This hasn't been helped by a significant shortage of psychologists. A petition to Parliament last year claimed New Zealand is 1,000 psychologists short, causing ballooning wait times nationwide, making it difficult for people to access help if needed. We need to further research and explore the use of more cost-effective, easily-accessible, home-based solutions such as this oVRcome app, to provide people with the treatment and support they need."

This study builds on the Department of Psychological Medicine's existing research into structured psychotherapy for mental distress.
reference:
Lacey, C., et al. (2022) oVRcome - Self-guided virtual reality for specific phobias: A randomised controlled trial. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1177/00048674221110779.
Link:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220714/Virtual-reality-app-trial-offers-new-hope-people-suffering-from-phobias.aspx
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Integrating mental health support with routine care is essential for people with congenital heart defects

Increase the prevalence of care for psychological well-being to help people with CHD experience a full and healthy life.

Although many individuals born with congenital heart defects develop resilience and have a high quality of life, they may face a variety of health-related psychological and social challenges throughout their lives. More mental health support that is integrated into their routine health care is advised to help them achieve optimal health and quality of life, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Congenital heart defects (CHD) occur when people are born with structural abnormalities of the heart or blood vessels involving the heart. Surgery and catheter interventions are often required to address these issues. Most people with CHD survive through adulthood, with adults now outnumbering children among more than 2.4 million living with CHD in the United States. A surgical intervention, however, does not cure CHD. People may need multiple operations, and specialty heart care is required throughout their lives, especially if they were born with complex heart problems.

"Decades of research describes the psychological and social stressors and challenges that can present across the lifespan for people with CHD," said Adrienne H. Kovacs, Ph.D., chair of the writing committee for the scientific statement and a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with people who have CHD. "It's long overdue that we move beyond awareness to action and providing more resources and expert mental health care for people living with CHD."

An American Heart Association scientific statement is an expert analysis of current research and may inform future guidelines. The Association's 2011 scientific statement on a related topic addressed developmental delays and other neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with CHD. However, this is the first statement to summarize the psychological and social challenges from childhood through adulthood and to review age-appropriate mental health interventions to improve quality of life.

According to the new statement, children with more complex CHDs have a 5-times higher rate of receiving an anxiety diagnosis in their lifetime compared to children without CHD. Despite the evidence of emotional, social and behavioral difficulties, only a small fraction of children with CHD are offered or participate in mental health assessment or treatment. For adults with CHD, the rate of experiencing a mood or anxiety disorder in their lifetime is about 50%, compared to about 30% for adults in the general population.

The statement summarizes the psychosocial impact of CHD during various stages of life:

Infancy - Babies may be exposed to frightening or painful procedures, and they may be separated from caregivers and family for extended periods of time for surgery or other hospitalization. In response, infants with CHD may be hypersensitive to light and sound, have difficulty feeding and sleeping or display intense fear and distress, and they may have developmental delays.
Childhood – There may be additional hospitalizations and surgeries, therefore, less opportunity to play or attend school, and they may also have developmental delays. In response, children with CHD may become socially withdrawn, experience symptoms of anxiety or depression, have difficulty in school, or display aggression or hyperactivity.
Adolescence – Health concerns may arise at the same time teens are striving for independence, expanding their social networks and taking on more responsibility for managing their health care as they transition from pediatric to adult care. In response, adolescents with CHD may have social difficulties, become angry, defiant or frustrated, or have body image concerns. They may also display risky behaviors or not follow health recommendations.
Adulthood – There may be new or worsening heart symptoms, repeat surgeries or other cardiac interventions during adulthood, and CHD can have a negative impact on finances, employment, insurance and family planning options. In response, adults with CHD may have difficulty with interpersonal relationships, higher education or employment. They may also have trouble taking care of their health needs and become worried about death and dying.
According to the statement, approaches to mental health care may encompass self-care strategies, such as relaxation techniques and hospital-based or online support groups; psychotherapy such as talk therapies for individuals, couples, families or groups; and medication therapy where a medical team can determine appropriate, heart-safe medications for depression or anxiety.

The statement strongly advocates for the integration of mental health professionals within CHD specialty care teams. Integrated mental health care normalizes emotional reactions to health challenges, reduces stigma, improves timely access as soon as health challenges arise, and provides coordinated care across the multidisciplinary health care team.

"The goal of this statement is to foster psychologically informed care that empowers people with CHD and their families and provides emotional support," said Kovacs. "We would like mental health assessment and support to be part of comprehensive care for all people with CHD rather than a special service that is offered only in some places or special circumstances."

In addition, the statement highlights priority areas for research to better understand and improve psychological outcomes for people with CHD, including:

how to best identify significant psychological distress;
factors that may contribute to psychological resilience and well-being;
gaining more information about the safety and effectiveness of psychotropic medications at different ages; and
personalized approaches to mental health interventions.
This statement follows two other scientific statements from the Association addressing care for people with CHD: a March 2022 scientific statement on support for the transition from pediatric to adult health care; and an April 2022 scientific statement addressing the impact of social determinants of health on CHD care throughout life.

This scientific statement was prepared by the volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association's Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts) and the Stroke Council. The writing group included a diverse, interdisciplinary group of experts with a long-standing commitment to the psychological care of individuals with CHD including two authors with CHD.

American Heart Association scientific statements promote greater awareness about cardiovascular diseases and stroke issues and help facilitate informed health care decisions. Scientific statements outline what is currently known about a topic, and what areas need additional research. While scientific statements inform the development of guidelines, they do not make treatment recommendations. American Heart Association guidelines provide the Association's official clinical practice recommendations.
reference:
Kovacs, A.H., et al. (2022) Psychological Outcomes and Interventions for Individuals With Congenital Heart Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. doi.org/10.1161/HCQ.0000000000000110.
Link:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220714/Integrating-mental-health-support-with-routine-care-is-essential-for-people-with-congenital-heart-defects.aspx
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Lifestyle interventions can help pediatricians meet the growing need for youth depression management

Psychological Intervention for Adolescent’s Depression

With rising prevalence of depression in adolescents, screening requirements are increasingly falling on pediatric primary care providers, who are encountering more at-risk patients. A new literature review in Harvard Review of Psychiatry underscores the evidence that non-traditional, so-called lifestyle interventions can help providers meet the growing need for youth depression management. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

The article reviews studies of lifestyle medicine interventions related to physical activity, sleep, nutrition, substance use, social connectedness, and stress management and provides clinical practice recommendations. "Having additional and more comprehensive details about such lifestyle recommendations could help clinicians integrate specific advice into anticipatory guidance, management, and treatment plans," suggest Talia S. Benheim, BA, and her colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, along with Michelle Dalal, MD, of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and Daniel Hosker, MD, in the September/October issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry.

Lifestyle medicine interventions can mitigate lack of access to traditional mental health treatments
Adolescent depression is strongly associated with negative academic, employment, and health outcomes well into adulthood, and studies point to the importance of early and timely access to mental health interventions. Yet, inaccessibility of mental health services persists, especially among marginalized populations.

The utility, versatility, and cost-effectiveness of lifestyle interventions are well known. They can be used by both licensed and non-licensed providers; implemented in a standalone manner or as part of a larger treatment plan; administered in-person or virtually, with a single patient or in groups; and are often more cost-effective and accommodating to patients' unique cultural situations.

The article reviews evidence of lifestyle interventions in physical activity, sleep, nutrition, substance use, social connectedness, and stress, demonstrating efficacy or feasibility in reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents. Studies included clinical trials, quantitative studies, and qualitative studies, as well as the authors' own clinical experience.

Regardless of whether physical activity is considered light or rigorous, many studies demonstrate the efficacy of physical activity in reducing depression symptoms. For example, one revealed that a two-hour decrease in sedentary activity in patients between ages 12 and 16 reduced depression scores by 16%–22% by age 18.
Sleep problems in adolescents persist into adulthood and have been associated with lack of response to depressive treatment and are even a risk factor for suicide. Yet, one study demonstrated that simple and specific guidelines for healthy sleep habits improved depressive symptoms. Bedtime routines such as keeping a diary or maintaining wind-down activities, as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, are also important.

Nutritional studies demonstrate that healthy plant- and whole food–based diets can alleviate or reduce depressive symptoms. The authors suggest a number of simple interventional approaches, such as tip sheets or recipes, engaging professional nutritionists, and guidance on so-called mindful or intuitive eating.

Cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine are also associated with depression in adolescents and can hinder effective treatment of both. Studies show prompt intervention is paramount. An online program in Australia has shown that increased knowledge of substances, depression, and anxiety reduced likelihood of drinking.

In adolescents, loneliness is correlated with depression, and lack of social connectedness is a predictor of suicidal ideation. One study revealed that increases in connectedness over time had corresponding reductions in adolescents' suicidal ideation. Numerous forms of connectedness-;for example, via extracurricular activities such as clubs and sports-;have proven to reduce depressive symptoms and can overlap with other lifestyle interventions.

Finally, interventions to support patients in coping with and managing stress can favorably influence the onset, maintenance, and severity of depression. Successful interventions include deep breathing, meditation, muscle relaxation techniques, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

The authors caution that interventions involving significant behavioral changes can be difficult, especially without social, financial, or cultural support. Despite the scarcity of randomized controlled trials of psychological and health behavior (e.g., physical activity) promoting interventions, Benheim, Dalal, and colleagues believe these interventions can help meet the increasing need for mental health services and give teens and families opportunities to empower themselves with the knowledge, skills, and habits to combat depression.

reference:
Benheim, T.S., et al. (2022) Back to Basics: Lifestyle Interventions for Adolescent Depression. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000343.

Link:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220915/Lifestyle-interventions-can-help-pediatricians-meet-the-growing-need-for-youth-depression-management.aspx
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Timely treatment of depression could reduce the risk of dementia

Importance of Continuous Psychotherapy: Once again, the course of ineffectively treated depression carries significant medical risk.”

Depression has long been associated with an increased risk of dementia, and now a new study provides evidence that timely treatment of depression could lower the risk of dementia in specific groups of patients.

Over 55 million people worldwide live with dementia, a disabling neurocognitive condition that mainly affects older adults. No effective treatment for dementia exists but identifying ways to help minimize or prevent dementia would help to lessen the burden of the disease.

The study, led by Jin-Tai Yu, MD, PhD, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, and Wei Cheng, PhD, Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier.

Professor Yu and Professor Cheng used data collected by the UK Biobank, a population-based cohort of over 500,000 participants. The current study included more than 350,000 participants, including 46,280 participants with depression. During the course of the study, 725 of the depressed patients developed dementia.

Previous studies examining whether depression therapies such as pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy could lower the risk for dementia produced mixed results, leaving the question unresolved. "Older individuals appear to experience different depression patterns over time," said Professor Yu. "Therefore, intra-individual variability in symptoms might confer different risk of dementia as well as heterogeneity in effectiveness of depression treatment in relation to dementia prevention."

To address that heterogeneity, the researchers then categorized participants into one of four courses of depression: increasing course, in which mild initial symptoms steadily increase; decreasing course, starting with moderate- or high-severity symptoms but subsequently decreasing; chronically high course of ongoing severe depressive symptoms; and chronically low course, where mild or moderate depressive symptoms are consistently maintained.
As expected, the study found that depression elevated the risk of dementia – by a striking 51% compared to non-depressed participants. However, the degree of risk depended on the course of depression; those with increasing, chronically high, or chronically low course depression were more vulnerable to dementia, whereas those with decreasing course faced no greater risk than participants without depression.

The researchers most wanted to know whether the increased risk for dementia could be lowered by receiving depression treatment. Overall, depressed participants who received treatment had reduced risk of dementia compared to untreated participants by about 30%. When the researchers separated the participants by depression course, they saw that those with increasing and chronically low courses of depression saw lower risk of dementia with treatment, but those with a chronically high course saw no benefit of treatment in terms of dementia risk.
He notes that, "in this case, symptomatic depression increases dementia risk by 51%, whereas treatment was associated with a significant reduction in this risk."

"This indicates that timely treatment of depression is needed among those with late-life depression," added Professor Cheng. "Providing depression treatment for those with late-life depression might not only remit affective symptoms but also postpone the onset of dementia."

"The new findings shed some light on previous work as well," said Professor Cheng. "The differences of effectiveness across depression courses might explain the discrepancy between previous studies."
reference:
Yang, L., et al. (2022) Depression, Depression Treatments, and Risk of Incident Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study of 354,313 Participants. Biological Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.08.026.

Link:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221017/Timely-treatment-of-depression-could-reduce-the-risk-of-dementia.aspx
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Study finds higher mortality risk in patients with treatment resistant depression

Importance of Early Psycho therapeutic Interventions 

Patients with treatment-resistant depression have a 23 per cent higher risk of death than other depressed patients. They also have twice as much outpatient care and spend three times the number of days in inpatient care. These are findings of a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and elsewhere, who conclude that it is important to identify patients at risk of developing treatment-resistant depression.   

Depression is the leading cause of functional disability the world over. The most common treatments are antidepressants or psychotherapy. Many sufferers need care for months or years, but a significant share of patients never recover despite two well-implemented treatment attempts. They have what is commonly called treatment-resistant depression.   

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Centre for Psychiatric Research have now examined the effects of treatment-resistant depression in Region Stockholm at both an individual and societal level, something that has not been studied to the same extent previously.  

In the population-based observation study, the researchers used data from several sources, including Region Stockholm's administrative healthcare database and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. Over 145,000 patients with depression in the Stockholm region were included in the study.   

Having identified 158,000 depressive episodes in these patients between 2012 and 2017, of which in excess of 12,000 were of a treatment-resistant nature, the researchers were able to draw a number of conclusions about what characterizes patients with treatment-resistant depression.   
They also found increased comorbidity with other psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety syndrome, insomnia, substance abuse syndrome and self-harm in the group with treatment-resistant depression.  

The researchers discovered that the risk of developing treatment-resistant depression could be predicted already at the first depression diagnosis. By far the most important prognostic factor was self-rated severity of depression. 

"We would benefit from identifying patients at risk of developing treatment-resistant depression, since it causes a great deal of personal suffering and is a burden for the whole of society," says Professor Johan Lundberg. 

It took an average of one and a half years for the patients with treatment-resistant depression to undergo the two treatment attempts, which is several months longer than is recommended for assessing the efficacy of a treatment for depression. Professor Lundberg says that a more frequent replacement of ineffective treatments would probably be of great help for this patient group. 

"We're talking about a patient group with a substantial health care consumption that might be identified earlier than today by increasing the use of symptom severity rating scales. Going by the results of the study, their care and treatment could be improved if their physician replaced ineffective treatments more rapidly and more often used treatments recommended for treatment-resistant depression, such as lithium, than was the case in the study material," says Professor Lundberg.   

The study was initiated and financed by Region Stockholm and carried out in association with the pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag.  

Reference:
Lundberg, J., et al. (2022) Association of Treatment-Resistant Depression With Patient Outcomes and Health Care Resource Utilization in a Population-Wide Study. JAMA Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.3860.
Link:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221215/Study-finds-higher-mortality-risk-in-patients-with-treatment-resistant-depression.aspx
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Digital interventions can help relieve depressive symptoms

Psychotherapy with Electronic , Online Intervention

With a shortage of therapists, help with mental health problems is being sought from digital interventions, where elements of psychological treatment are offered via computer programs or mobile applications. According to a study, smart devices can help identify people with symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Every year, 400 million people worldwide are affected by depression or anxiety, and the coronavirus pandemic has only increased the prevalence of mental health problems. At the same time, there is a shortage of psychotherapists. Digital interventions, where elements of psychological treatment are offered via computer programs or mobile applications, have been proposed as a solution.

In his doctoral thesis in the field of psychology, researcher Isaac Moshe investigated the effectiveness of digital interventions in treating mental health problems, with depressive symptoms in particular focus.
Tracking depression and anxiety with smart devices

One sub-study in the doctoral thesis examined whether symptoms of depression or anxiety can be identified from data collected by smartphones or wearable devices. A total of 60 adults who used an iPhone or an Oura Ring took part in the sub-study.

Based on the study, smartphone GPS data was predicted the user's depressive symptoms. Subjects who visited the same locations repeatedly had more depressive symptoms than those whose location had more variability. The data collected by smart rings indicated that the longer the person slept or spent time in bed on average, the more depressive symptoms they had. The ring data also revealed that the more frequently people woke up at night, the more symptoms of anxiety they had.
Digital interventions alleviate depressive symptoms
The most extensive sub-study of the doctoral thesis was an international collaboration that assessed the effectiveness of digital interventions in treating depression by conducting a meta-analysis of all previous studies. Digital interventions typically include videos, interactive exercises or text to deliver the core components of psychotherapy, which are then packaged into an online program or smartphone app.

The dataset was composed of 83 randomized controlled trials conducted between 1990 and 2020 involving 15,530 participants.

The findings indicate that digital interventions brought relief from depressive symptoms when they were offered in public or private healthcare settings. Digital interventions alleviated symptoms in people of all ages, regardless of depression severity or physical comorbidity.

Moshe points out that there are important caveats: in children and adolescents, digital interventions were less effective than in adults. Having human support alongside the digital interventions was also critical to people completing the programs and therefore getting the maximum benefits. Furthermore, the researchers felt that it was unclear whether digital interventions were indeed as effective as face-to-face psychotherapy, as so few comparative studies on the topic have so far been conducted.

Moshe believes that, overall, digital interventions could provide a valuable way to help meet the growing global demand for mental healthcare.

"They lower the barrier to accessing treatment, enabling anyone with a computer an internet connection to benefit from psychotherapy at a time and place that is convenient to them. Digital interventions also require much less time from therapists than traditional therapy, making it possible to shorten waiting lists and treat more people."

Reference:
Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki)
Link: 
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221220/Digital-interventions-can-help-relieve-depressive-symptoms.aspx
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Certificate of Appreciation

Dr. Saied Malihialzackerini’s Certificate of Appreciation from President of Psychology and Counseling Organization of I.R.Iran

Dear Dr.Saied MAlihialzackerini 
We hereby express our appreciation and thanks to your Excellencies for proposing, designing, implementing, and operating the new website , web based platforms of membership, licensing, and web-based administrative automation for Psychology and Counseling Organization of I.R.Iran (https://pcoiran.ir ), as well as for your persistent and continuous efforts in optimizing the organization's technological affairs. Almighty God, I wish you more and more success in serving the people and the society of psychologists and counselors of Our country.
Mohammad Hatami
President
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Do Introverts Really Have Less Fun?

New research traces whether introverts can squeeze joy out of their daily lives.

Finding joy in everyday experiences is an important way to keep yourself stressless and carefree. It may be something as simple as a young relative taking your hand as you walk down a hallway. That immediate boost helps shine a little light on your day. Known as an “uplift” in the psychological literature, such events are known to help reduce stress. Uplifts can counteract the effects of “hassles,” which are equally small events that, through wear and tear, can impact your mental and physical health.
As described in a new study by Pennsylvania State University’s Natasha DeMeo and colleagues (2023), “uplifts and hassles not only make up the topography of daily life…but these experiences… have implications for health and well-being” (p. 355). Importantly, though, people differ in their propensity to and resistance to such impacts.
Why Introverts Might Have Fewer Uplifts
Previous research has established that extraverts seek out and relish joyful experiences, even those tiny ones that qualify as uplifts. Introverts, with their greater inner focus, may be less likely to take advantage of these stress-buffering effects. However, they may also be more affected by hassles. Laboratory studies provide compelling evidence that introverts show greater emotional and physiological reactivity to external stressors. They may also be less likely to see themselves as successful copers and even take a bleaker view of a stressful situation than people high in extraversion. These self-perceptions, seen as critical in the so-called “cognitive” model of stress, can further exacerbate the deleterious effects of stress on health.
The Penn State authors note that, despite the strength of these prior studies, they may fail to capture the nuances of the personality–stress relationship. A lab study is useful for experimentation purposes, it but lacks the so-called “external validity” of seeing how people react in the context of their daily lives. Furthermore, prior studies rely on people’s memories for their hassles and uplifts, making the data subject to a retrospective bias. You can appreciate this problem if you think about the way you recall an event from several days or even hours ago. The details fade and, worse, become colored by the emotions the event arises after the fact.
Testing the Personality–Stress Link
Taking the approach that hassles and uplifts are best studied as they occur in real time, DeMeo and her collaborators used the method known as “ecological momentary assessment” (EMA). Their 242 participants ranging in age from 25 to 65 years lived in housing development in the Bronx and were part of a larger study on aging through which the EMA data were collected. Racially and ethnically diverse, nearly two-thirds were non-Hispanic Black, and a quarter were Hispanic; three-quarters either had a college degree or had at least some college courses.
Each participant was beeped through a smartphone app five times a day for 14 days. At each assessment, they reported on “any event, even a minor one, which affected [the participant] in a positive way.” If they did report an uplift, follow-up questions asked them to rate its intensity on a 1-to-100 scale. To measure introversion, the Penn State researchers administered a standard 10-item questionnaire, and the research team also measured hassles at the same time as they assessed uplifts.
The sample appeared relatively fortunate in the sense of experiencing relatively few hassles (less than 1 per day on average) and on the 0-to-100 scale, the average hassle amounted to about 67 points in intensity. Also fortunately for the sample, they reported about 19 uplifts over the 14-day period, and these qualified for a rating of nearly 80 in intensity.
Although prior research indicated a tendency for introverts to derive less joy out of their days, DeMeo et al.’s analyses hinged on the findings with respect to uplifts, based on the idea that introverts would be less sensitive to rewards. Consistent with prediction, those scoring higher on introversion reported fewer uplifts on a daily basis and they rated those uplifts as less enjoyable than did their less introverted counterparts. In round numbers, this amounted to only 15 uplifts over the two weeks that were rated as 76 rather than 79 out of 100.
Introversion alone, however, wasn’t the only factor affecting uplift ratings. When neuroticism, depression, and anxiety were taken into account, the effect of introversion remained only for frequency of uplifts, not intensity.
In terms of predictions regarding the ways that introverts would perceive their own coping abilities, the finding did emerge of a tendency for them to regard “miscellaneous” hassles (i.e., not specific to situations such as finances or traffic) as higher in intensity. As the authors concluded, “we found some preliminary evidence of person-environment interactions—where the occurrence or experience of an event depends on the characteristics of both the situation and the person” (p. 361). In other words, whether people high in introversion believe an event to be a hassle may be specific to the given situation and the match between the way they see themselves and the nature of the hassle itself.
How Introverts Can Extract More Joy From Life
As the Penn State study suggests, people who tend to focus on their inner life appear to be more resistant to the possibility that an ordinary experience, however small, could produce a rush of positive feelings. Although the authors didn’t explore this particular line of reasoning, it may very well be that this focus on an inner state may not only inoculate them from hassles but also stand in the way of the simple pleasures that are so much a part of everyday life.
Given the high stakes in terms of mental and physical health associated with achieving a favorable pleasure–pain balance, the DeMeo results suggest that it would be worth the effort for people high in introversion to find ways to let the sun shine in on a more frequent basis.
To sum up, successful coping is more than a matter of fending off the bad. Finding joy in the seemingly insignificant experiences in life can help build not only resilience but also fulfillment.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202303/do-introverts-really-have-less-fun
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Can Thinking About Change Help You Actually Change?

New research examines how beliefs about change affect psychological growth.

When you think about yourself over the course of your life, which features stand out as having changed the most? Projecting into the future, what aspects of yourself would you like most to change? Perhaps you’ve struggled your entire life with feelings of low self-confidence. You’d like to think, though, that as you get older and pack more experiences under your belt, you could become better able to appreciate your strengths. Like the “Little Engine That Could,” do you “think you can”?
Personality and Beliefs About Change
Norwegian Business School's Adrian Furnham and Hogan Assessment Systems' Ryne Sherman (2023) ask the question, “We all want to believe that we can change (for the better), but are we deluded?” (p. 1). This drive for self-improvement can lead people to turn to unreliable sources, according to Furnham and Sherman, but it may also underlie the desire to seek help through psychotherapy or other change-focused treatments.
However, as you might imagine, the belief in upward growth throughout life doesn’t reside equally in everyone. That “little engine” is definitely an optimist. Indeed, the research team maintains that optimism in its many forms (religious, political, and personality) would be the main driver of an eternally sunny view of one’s own future.
Another factor that can influence your beliefs about future change is the perception that you have already changed. For example, if you see yourself as growing over time in self-confidence, however minimal, this could be enough to give you a basis for believing that trajectory will only grow over time.
As Furnham and Sherman point out, however, there can be a difference in your thoughts about future change based on the inventory you take of your various attributes. If you’ve always been punctual, you might not expect much to change in this quality, a belief that corresponds to previous research on changes in the trait of conscientiousness over adulthood. In the area of health, though, you may be convinced that change will occur, and the odds are that it will, given increases in chronic diseases over the adult years. If you’re an optimist, though, you may decide that your health doesn’t have to change if you are able to commit yourself to a regimen of better daily habits.
How Change Beliefs Actually Change
Using a sample of 510 adults (equally divided between male and female, average age 40 years), Furnham and Sherman first asked participants to rate their degree of religious beliefs, extent of political conservatism, and tendencies to be optimists. These simple questions were followed by a more extensive set of items concerning their beliefs about whether change is possible (on a 0–10 scale) in such attributes as personality, appearance, health, ambitiousness, IQ, education, hobbies, posture, height, and body shape (BMI). You might put yourself in the place of the participants here and see what your views would be.
For the next part of the study, participants rated themselves on the changes they’ve perceived in themselves over the past 10 years. Again, think about where you would come out on 0-to-10 rating in such qualities as habits, beliefs, personality, health, appearance, self-confidence, and the overall quality of “emotional intelligence” (people skills).
Adding to the mix, the research team also asked participants to rate what’s called a “mindset,” another way of approaching beliefs about personal change, In the fixed mindset, you are convinced that you’ll be the way you are now forever, but in the growth mindset, improvement is forever possible.
The final set of questions simply asked whether the respondent believes that counseling or therapy can work, whether it’s possible to change from an introvert to an extravert, and whether people become nicer/kinder as they get older. Based on some of Furman’s own musings, you might agree that these are certainly interesting questions to ponder.
Turning to the findings, participants gave the highest ratings for change beliefs in the areas of physical health, wealth, and emotional intelligence and the lowest ratings to height, religious beliefs, and punctuality. How do these compare with your own views? When it came to thinking about past changes, participants generally saw themselves as changing almost across the board, except in the area of beliefs. Almost three-quarters thought they would grow in emotional intelligence. In those general questions about change, two-thirds thought that therapy can work, but few believed that an introvert could become an extravert.
Taking on the “Changophilic” Mentality
As expected, Furnham and Sherman observed a positive correlation between the optimism item and the majority of the change belief items. However, self-esteem also factored into the equation such that it was the optimistic people who already thought more highly of themselves who were most convinced that they were capable of changing.
Altogether, as noted by the research team, a group of people in the study fit the category of what they somewhat humorously labeled “changophiles,” based on the high intercorrelation among all of their change beliefs. Potentially a new mindset factor, it would be this approach to life that could help people look at their future glass as being half-, or maybe three-quarters, full rather than steadily emptying.
In terms of the favorable attitudes participants showed toward the possibility of change through psychotherapy, there actually is a potential downside that the authors note. Being “naively optimistic” (p. 5) about what therapy can and cannot do could ironically predict failure. These high hopes could lead you to expect some kind of magical transformation instead of being prepared for the work that therapy can entail.
Left unanswered in this study, as Furnham and Sherman note, is the question of where people get the ideas that bolster their change beliefs. In part, this may be accounted for by religiosity, which was predictive of change beliefs, but, other than that, the present research couldn’t go much farther. Similarly, the question remains of whether people see changes as potentially long-lasting. You could perhaps imagine yourself reducing your weight to restore what’s considered a healthy BMI, but “often there is a clear return to the original BMI” (p. 6).
To sum up, being able to identify your own change beliefs can be a worthwhile exercise in and of itself. Reflecting on how you’ve changed so far can inform this process, but so can taking a page from the high self-esteem/high optimism group. Thinking about yourself as getting better in the future could potentially lead to the types of changes that can make these thoughts a reality.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202303/can-thinking-about-change-help-you-actually-change
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The Secret Behaviors That Make People Likable

How to impress others in initial encounters.

We meet someone — a stranger – and we immediately form an impression of that person. Often, we make a snap decision: “I like that person,” or “I really don’t care for them.” This important initial judgment can affect not only how we feel about the person, but whether we continue to interact with them, whether we want to develop a friendship or dating relationship, or, in the case of a hiring interview, whether the person gets the job.
Social psychological research suggests that there are certain behaviors that can strongly affect our initial impressions of strangers. In one study (Dufner & Krause, 2023), unacquainted young adults met in small groups and then spent a short amount of time interacting with each group member one-on-one. After each meeting, they rated how likable they found each stranger — whether they would like to get to know them and become friends with them. Trained observers watched each interaction and coded them for “agentic” and “communal” behaviors. Agentic behaviors are those that show confidence, dominance, and are slightly boastful. Communal behaviors include being polite, warm, friendly, and benevolent.
As far as initial likability, strangers who displayed high levels of both agentic and communal behaviors were better liked. However, when it came to establishing a deeper connection, it was only the communal behavior that predicted whether people wanted to form a friendship with the stranger. This makes sense. In an initial encounter, we may be impressed with people who are confident and proud/boastful. An air of confidence can increase liking. On the other hand, communal behavior – being warm, friendly, and polite – is strongly appealing and we want to get to know people better if they are warm, friendly, and seem to care.
Nonverbal Cues of Likability
In our own research, we found that in initial encounters with strangers, expressive body language led to greater liking. However, we also found a sex difference, such that men who were expressive with their bodies via posture and head movements were better liked, while women who were expressive with their facial expressions were most liked (Riggio & Friedman, 1986). We also found that nonverbally expressive people were better liked, and perceived as more attractive potential dating partners (Riggio, Widaman, Tucker, & Salinas, 1991).
So, what should someone do to increase their likability when meeting strangers? Try your best to appear warm and friendly, but it is also important to bring expressive energy to the encounter. Show that you are interested. Exude positive affect/emotions and a slight air of confidence. Demonstrate that you care about the other person by being a good listener. Let people know something about you, and show that you are proud of the positive things that you have accomplished.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/202303/the-secret-behaviors-that-make-people-likable
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The Promise of Studying Human Aggression in the Wild

The Promise of Studying Human Aggression in the Wild

What causes some individuals to act out violently when provoked, while others turn the other cheek? For decades, psychologists, criminologists, and sociologists (among others) have tried to understand the causes of this type of behavior, referred to as ‘reactive aggression’. From this work, we know that there are some vital ingredients that when combined, are a recipe for reactive aggression.
What makes some people likely to react aggressively?
Being angry is one key ingredient. Trait-level characteristics like being quick to anger, or temporarily being in an irritable emotional state, increase the likelihood that individuals will respond aggressively. Another common ingredient is a loosening of inhibitions, such as what is observed due to alcohol intoxication. In individuals with a history of reactive aggression, there are differences in brain activity that correspond to heightened reactivity to provocation and a hard time stopping oneself from reacting to an insult with violence.
But even if we don’t consider ourselves aggressive people or haven’t seriously harmed another person (intentionally), it’s a very human experience to want to lash out with words or fists, or just punch a pillow, when we’ve been angered by someone. Many pioneering social psychologists argued that, under the right circumstances, almost anyone could act immorally or aggressively. A less extreme version of this is the notion that all behaviors (good and bad) arise from the interaction of the person and their environment (Lewin, 1936). So can our environments make us aggressive?
What do we know about the role of our surroundings?
Unfortunately, understanding what role the external, physical or social environment plays in leading people to act aggressively is quite a challenge. Experimental research on human behavior is usually conducted in the lab, a distinctly unnatural environment for a human being**. And due to (reasonable) ethical constraints, scientists can’t ask participants to inflict significant physical harm on another human. Given this, how can we know what elements and features of our surroundings might lead to reactive aggression?
For example, say we want to know if and why nature exposure might reduce aggression. Some research has shown this through virtual nature interventions and lab-based aggression tasks in which people are ostensibly paired with a person in another room toward whom they are acting aggressively (Wang et al., 2018). But what about doing so in real natural environments?
Steps toward testing aggression in the wild
Trying to address this type of question is what led me and my colleagues to create a new task, which we call the Retaliate or Carry-on: Reactive AGgression Experiment (RC-RAGE for short), a browser-based task of impulsive, reactive aggression, recently published in Behavior Research Methods (Meidenbauer et al., 2023). We validated the task in a large online sample of US adults and found that, consistent with other literature, being in an angry emotional state and having a history of physical aggression or being quick to anger was associated with reactive aggression on our task.
Another interesting thing we found was that the people most likely to react aggressively when provoked were those who tended to act impulsively. We found this impactful in its own right, but given that research has suggested nature interactions can reduce impulsivity (Berry et al., 2014), this suggests another mechanism that might explain why we see less violence and aggression in people or areas with greater nature exposure.
Additionally, our task was designed to be portable and flexible enough to use outside the lab, opening up a variety of opportunities to study aggression in real environments. It should be noted that, like all other aggression tasks, ours suffers from some limitations; for example, we can’t inflict great harm for ethical reasons so our acts of aggression involve stealing money and shooting an avatar.
Changing our environments to reduce violence?
Nonetheless, it does create an exciting means to examine how different types of physical environments and social contexts can influence reactive aggression. And when it comes to the physical environment, it’s much easier to change an external environment than to change an individual. Thus, research on this topic can generate insights for reducing violence by changing individuals' physical surroundings. In fact, some researchers are already trying to reduce violence by greening vacant lots or planting trees, with very promising results (Kondo et al., 2018).
While there is still plenty of work to be done on this front, it’s a truly exciting time to see what we can learn by moving aggression research into real-world environments.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/environ-mentality/202303/the-promise-of-studying-human-aggression-in-the-wild
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Cognitive Fitness

Develop a Clearer, Sharper, Healthier Brain in 6 Simple Steps

STEP #1: Enjoy a Brain-Healthy Diet

Discover plant-based foods that can help prevent cognitive decline. The flexible, unrestrictive diet shown to reduce Alzheimer’s risk by up to 53% in a study. The best vitamins and nutrients for brain health and their food sources. Brain-damaging foods to avoid. Downloadable diet plans and recipes. And more.
STEP #2: Brain-Healthy Exercise

People who are more physically active are at less risk of dementia and score better on attention, verbal fluency, verbal memory and other cognitive abilities. Discover the benefits of three type of exercises plus mind/body exercises for better brain health. You’ll also get a printable exercise tracker to keep you motivated!
STEP #3: Brain-Healthy Sleep

Find out why getting the right amount of sleep is essential for locking long-term memory. Plus, see what to do if you have trouble falling asleep...daytime tips to improve nighttime sleep...non-drug approaches to help you relax and fall asleep...doctor-recommended over-the-counter and prescription sleep aids...and more.


STEP #4: Brain-Healthy Stress Management

Find out how chronic stress can damage your brain and lead to memory problems. Plus, discover practical tools and strategies to manage stress and boost resilience...stress-busting foods...how improving your gut health can relieve chronic stress...how to identify and deal with stress triggers...and more. PLUS: How stressed are you, really? Find out with our interactive quiz!
STEP #5: Brain-Healthy Relationships

Find out why healthy relationships are as important as physical activity and healthy diet for brain health. Discover simple steps to widen your social network...games that improve your ability to remember specific events...specific relationships that improve your ability to think on your feet...and more. PLUS: How lonely are you, really? Find out with our interactive quiz!
STEP #6: Brain-Healthy Challenges

Evidence shows that the more you stimulate your brain, the better you can protect yourself against the detrimental effects of aging. Discover the three rules for mental stimulation... how a certain puzzle can slow the onset of memory decline by as much as 2½ years...the astounding impact of computer-based brain training...and more.

PLUS — you’ll get a printable cognitive fitness checklist and a goal-planning worksheet to help keep you on target in your brain-building efforts!

Reference :
Harvard Medical School.
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/cognitive-fitness-ecourse-apr2020-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EL20230403-CognitiveFitness&utm_id=5093929&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=5093929
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A New Hope for Building Your Emotional Intelligence

New research shows the skill that can make you more emotionally intelligent.

Do you ever wonder whether it’s better to show your emotions or to keep them hidden? Perhaps your hairstylist cuts your hair much shorter than you asked for. Do you decide it’s better just to wait till it grows back in (and find a different stylist), or should you let the manager know how infuriated you are? Either strategy has pros and cons, so which is the lesser of the two evils?
According to a recent study by the University of Catania’s Maria Quattropani and colleagues (2022), most situations present two starkly different alternatives for managing your emotions, and it is indeed often hard to know which way to react. The key to healthy adjustment, they argued, isn’t always being right about your choice but being able to see that there is indeed a choice.
They noted that “flexibility in emotion regulation represents a central tenet for overall psychological adjustment” (p. 698). In other words, some situations call for expression, and some for suppression. Even if you take the wrong turn in this dilemma, at least you’re able to see that life often presents more gray than black-and-white areas when it comes to handling your emotions.
Emotional Flexibility and Its Measurement
You might think that all of these choices would depend on the quality of your emotional intelligence. But what if your emotional intelligence isn’t all that high? Are you stuck in an endless loop of constantly saying and doing the wrong thing?
The idea of emotional flexibility can become your saving grace. Even if you don’t top out at the positive end of the emotional intelligence curve, Quattropani et al.’s research suggested using emotional flexibility as your go-to alternative skill.
You can get an idea of what this quality looks like by seeing where you rate on the measure the Italian research team used, the “Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression” scale, abbreviated as “FREE” (Burton & Bonanno, 2016). To complete this scale, you put yourself into 16 situations that fall into four categories based on the emotion involved in the situation (positive or negative) and your reaction to that emotion (express or conceal). For each, you are to rate yourself from “unable” to “very able” to be even more expressive of how you were feeling.
See how you would do on these four sample items:

See how you would do on these four sample items:
Positive-Expressive: You receive a gift from a family member, but it’s a shirt you dislike.
Negative-Expressive: Your friend is telling you about what a terrible day they had.
Positive-Conceal: You are in a training session and see an accidentally funny typo in the presenter’s slideshow.
Negative-Conceal: You are at a social event, and the person you’re talking to frequently spits while they speak.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202303/a-new-hope-for-building-your-emotional-intelligence
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Positive Parenting, Brain Development, and Teen Alcohol Use

Parents’ closeness in teen years enhances resiliency and reduces alcohol abuse.

Not only does positive parenting make for a happier family life, but it also enhances children’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development going forward. A recently published study shows that this remains true through the teen years, and that it's particularly important for kids at risk of substance abuse.
Adolescence is a time of rapid and critically important brain development, a time during which positive parenting leads to better self-regulation, cognitive processing, decision-making, and judgement. The developing brain can be nurtured by positive parenting, and it can also be damaged by drug or alcohol abuse, very much including binge drinking.
Research Findings Support Parental Closeness During Adolescence
In a recently published study, Gayathri Pandey and colleagues investigated whether parents’ closeness to their children aged 12 to 17 had an impact on the teens’ binge drinking behavior. They found that young people at risk of alcohol abuse were less likely to be binge drinkers, and more likely to show signs of healthy brain development, if they felt close to their parents through the teen years.
There were some differences by sex (e.g., closeness to mothers was more strongly related to avoidance of binge drinking; closeness to fathers showed a bigger impact on neurocognitive factors), but in general both parents’ closeness to their adolescent child made a difference in the likelihood of binge drinking and healthy brain development.
Pandey and colleagues concluded that, “Positive parenting and parent–child closeness promote children's efficient executive functions and self-regulation, which in turn reduce risky drinking and other externalizing behaviors.”
How to Practice Positive Parenting in the Teen Years
1-Take good care of yourself. It can be very challenging to be the parent of a teenager. In order to maintain a patient, loving relationship with your child, do your best to get good nutrition, enough sleep and exercise, and time for yourself.
 2-Be positive. The teen years are filled with anxieties, insecurities, and self-doubts, as well as a heightened alertness to possible criticism. No matter how challenging it might be, look for ways to show your approval every day, and be careful to avoid critical judgement.
3-Show up. As much as possible, be there for your teenager. Quality time is important, but so is the amount of time you’re present and available.
4-Listen. Your teenager may not always want to talk to you, but when they do, listen with an open heart, without criticism or judgement. Do your best to avoid lecturing or pontificating. Just listen, with empathy and (as much as possible) approval.
5-Be calm and confident. It’s normal and healthy for you and your teen to see things differently and to argue about that. No matter how you feel at the time, it’s good for their development if they contest your attitudes, beliefs, and values. That’s the best way for them to hear why you think the way you do. If you can be calm and confident about your position, you’ll increase the likelihood they’ll see things your way.
6-Respect your child’s autonomy. Treat your teenager as the young adult they are in the process of becoming. Give them as much respect and independence as they can safely handle. Let them learn from making small mistakes now, as a way to prevent larger mistakes later.
7-Support your child’s solution-finding. Even if your child asks for advice, if they come to you with a problem, be empathetic and start with questions that help them define their own solutions. “What do you think you should do?” is always a good start. Followed by, “What do you think would happen if you did that?” After that kind of conversation, if your child still wants you to weigh in, or if they haven’t come to a good solution, you might say, “If I were you, I think I’d probably…”
8-Set expectations, rules, and consequences collaboratively. Discuss with your child what you need from them, and what they need from you, to keep your home running smoothly. Make as few rules as possible, and make sure they’re clear and understood. Get your child involved in deciding on consequences for violations. Rather than removing privileges like screens, discuss additional chores as possible consequences.
9-Be a good role model. You may not realize how closely your child is watching what you do, how you relate to others, how reliable and trustworthy you are, whether or not your actions match your admonitions to them. They learn so much more from what you do than from what you say.
10-Stay connected. Keep your focus on your connection with your child, not on the mistakes they make, or the bad judgement they show, or the disrespect they show for you and others. What matters most in the long run is their feeling that you love and support them, that you believe in them, not whether or not they fail a grade, drink too much at a party, or stay out past their curfew.
There are many good reasons to practice positive parenting with your teenager. These new research findings show that supporting their healthy brain development and reducing the likelihood of substance abuse are two more.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/going-beyond-intelligence/202303/positive-parenting-brain-development-and-teen-alcohol-use
/6 Comments/by
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New Research Shows Why Kids Need Play for Mental Health

A recent study finds links between children’s lack of play and declining mental health.

Has our drive to protect our children impaired their mental health—and made our conversations with them less rich? Recently Dr. Peter Gray, a psychology professor at Boston College and prominent researcher on child play, alerted me to his recent article exploring exactly this question. The article, in-press as of March 2023 in the Journal of Pediatrics, and written along with David F. Lancy of Utah State and David Bjorlung of Florida State, comes to startling conclusions.
Specifically, the ongoing decline in children’s mental health—and the current mental health emergency for children in the U.S.—appears at least in part to be driven by a lack of opportunities to roam, play, and act independently. When children have little time and encouragement to play, they lose their sense of autonomy. They are not encouraged to think independently, to imagine or dream, or even to navigate the complexities of the world around them. They also have few opportunities to pursue questions of interest to them and to have conversations that evolve from their authentic interests. That is, they don't learn what they care about—and why they care.
Gray cites an observational study of children in 20 parks in Durham, North Carolina. After controlling for many variables, the researchers found that children without an adult visibly present were much more likely to engage in vigorous play. Simply the fact of having an adult hovering seemed to inhibit the children’s play—from young children through teenagers. What’s more, when children don’t have the chance to play together, without constant adult intervention, their conversations with us are often less rich. We don’t have the chance to hear from them about their explorations and collaborations—and they don’t get that opportunity to tell stories to us. Why create stories and narratives for us, and describe their insights, if we are always there?
"We're Too Busy to Let Kids Play"
This research aligns with what I have seen as a speech-language pathologist, lecturer in education, and mother of two. Often, especially among wealthier families—ironically, families who tend to live in areas with more green spaces and safe areas to play—unstructured play is seen as an unnecessary luxury, even a waste of time. Having three or four activities per weekend day has quickly become the norm. Additional academic activities—notably Russian math—have become status symbols as well as attempts to ensure children’s school success.
While these activities indeed can provide a physical and mental boost, if they come at the expense of downtime and unstructured time, they can become counterproductive. Children have little chance for internal thought or decision-making, or for the more complex language of negotiation and collaboration. Worse, as Gray’s article concludes, these limitations are strongly linked to stress, anxiety, and depression, as children gain little experience stretching or challenging themselves. Without the opportunities to build skills, they often start lacking confidence. They may feel as if they can’t take on challenges—since they simply don’t.
Without Play, Kids Use Language Less Flexibly
Consider a child, “Jill,” who’s taken from one place to the other, under constant supervision: to the park, to school, to afterschool activities and to soccer practice. Her conversations are likely to be primarily responses to adult questions and directions; for example, following the directions of a craft activity in afterschool, or answering a parent’s questions about which slide she’d like to go on next. With little chance to speak with other children—or even to have quiet time for her mind to wander—Jill will likely not have much opportunity to use language to negotiate or collaborate.
She also isn’t likely to feel a strong locus of control, or a sense that she can exert control and make decisions about her life, even in small ways. In part due to these feelings, she doesn’t get a lot of practice dealing with issues or frustrations. She doesn’t need to talk herself through problems or find solutions. She mostly needs to respond.
Why does this matter? This kind of talking-through problems lets children build skills they desperately need. As research has shown, the amount of time children have for unstructured play links to their executive function skills and their abilities to regulate themselves, even two years later. When children have downtime, it isn’t simply “empty.” Rather, it is a rich space in which they can ask themselves questions, and can ask questions of others, learning to socialize even as they learn about the world. Our interactions can stretch them, if we aren’t hovering.
How Kids Can Play—And How Our Input Can Help
Consider Jill sitting at the sandbox with her friends, among a stack of buckets and construction tools. The friends decide to construct a play castle. They need to talk through how the moats should be constructed, how the towers should be placed, and who should get which bucket. We can help by sitting back and asking occasional questions, responding when children have trouble managing their arguments, and supporting their questions to grow.
For instance, we could ask questions after play, including, “What was the most interesting part of that structure to you?” or “How did you decide on what roles to play?” You might engage children by thinking about how they took initiative, what worked well and didn't, and with whom they enjoyed working and didn't. These types of questions can lead to far richer interactions than sitting in the middle of children’s activities, constantly chiming in.
Encouraging our society to prioritize these activities is critical, moving forward, to support the health and well-being of the children and teenagers in our lives. For families who fear retribution from social services or the police for letting children take on appropriate challenges, we especially need to provide support. Unstructured play should be an equal opportunity sport.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-art-of-talking-with-children/202303/new-research-shows-why-kids-need-play-for-mental
/2 Comments/by
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Can Thinking About Change Help You Actually Change?

New research examines how beliefs about change affect psychological growth.

When you think about yourself over the course of your life, which features stand out as having changed the most? Projecting into the future, what aspects of yourself would you like most to change? Perhaps you’ve struggled your entire life with feelings of low self-confidence. You’d like to think, though, that as you get older and pack more experiences under your belt, you could become better able to appreciate your strengths. Like the “Little Engine That Could,” do you “think you can”?
Personality and Beliefs About Change
Norwegian Business School's Adrian Furnham and Hogan Assessment Systems' Ryne Sherman (2023) ask the question, “We all want to believe that we can change (for the better), but are we deluded?” (p. 1). This drive for self-improvement can lead people to turn to unreliable sources, according to Furnham and Sherman, but it may also underlie the desire to seek help through psychotherapy or other change-focused treatments.
However, as you might imagine, the belief in upward growth throughout life doesn’t reside equally in everyone. That “little engine” is definitely an optimist. Indeed, the research team maintains that optimism in its many forms (religious, political, and personality) would be the main driver of an eternally sunny view of one’s own future.
Another factor that can influence your beliefs about future change is the perception that you have already changed. For example, if you see yourself as growing over time in self-confidence, however minimal, this could be enough to give you a basis for believing that trajectory will only grow over time.
As Furnham and Sherman point out, however, there can be a difference in your thoughts about future change based on the inventory you take of your various attributes. If you’ve always been punctual, you might not expect much to change in this quality, a belief that corresponds to previous research on changes in the trait of conscientiousness over adulthood. In the area of health, though, you may be convinced that change will occur, and the odds are that it will, given increases in chronic diseases over the adult years. If you’re an optimist, though, you may decide that your health doesn’t have to change if you are able to commit yourself to a regimen of better daily habits.
How Change Beliefs Actually Change
Using a sample of 510 adults (equally divided between male and female, average age 40 years), Furnham and Sherman first asked participants to rate their degree of religious beliefs, extent of political conservatism, and tendencies to be optimists. These simple questions were followed by a more extensive set of items concerning their beliefs about whether change is possible (on a 0–10 scale) in such attributes as personality, appearance, health, ambitiousness, IQ, education, hobbies, posture, height, and body shape (BMI). You might put yourself in the place of the participants here and see what your views would be.
For the next part of the study, participants rated themselves on the changes they’ve perceived in themselves over the past 10 years. Again, think about where you would come out on 0-to-10 rating in such qualities as habits, beliefs, personality, health, appearance, self-confidence, and the overall quality of “emotional intelligence” (people skills).
Adding to the mix, the research team also asked participants to rate what’s called a “mindset,” another way of approaching beliefs about personal change, In the fixed mindset, you are convinced that you’ll be the way you are now forever, but in the growth mindset, improvement is forever possible.
The final set of questions simply asked whether the respondent believes that counseling or therapy can work, whether it’s possible to change from an introvert to an extravert, and whether people become nicer/kinder as they get older. Based on some of Furman’s own musings, you might agree that these are certainly interesting questions to ponder.
Turning to the findings, participants gave the highest ratings for change beliefs in the areas of physical health, wealth, and emotional intelligence and the lowest ratings to height, religious beliefs, and punctuality. How do these compare with your own views? When it came to thinking about past changes, participants generally saw themselves as changing almost across the board, except in the area of beliefs. Almost three-quarters thought they would grow in emotional intelligence. In those general questions about change, two-thirds thought that therapy can work, but few believed that an introvert could become an extravert.
Taking on the “Changophilic” Mentality
As expected, Furnham and Sherman observed a positive correlation between the optimism item and the majority of the change belief items. However, self-esteem also factored into the equation such that it was the optimistic people who already thought more highly of themselves who were most convinced that they were capable of changing.
Altogether, as noted by the research team, a group of people in the study fit the category of what they somewhat humorously labeled “changophiles,” based on the high intercorrelation among all of their change beliefs. Potentially a new mindset factor, it would be this approach to life that could help people look at their future glass as being half-, or maybe three-quarters, full rather than steadily emptying.
In terms of the favorable attitudes participants showed toward the possibility of change through psychotherapy, there actually is a potential downside that the authors note. Being “naively optimistic” (p. 5) about what therapy can and cannot do could ironically predict failure. These high hopes could lead you to expect some kind of magical transformation instead of being prepared for the work that therapy can entail.
Left unanswered in this study, as Furnham and Sherman note, is the question of where people get the ideas that bolster their change beliefs. In part, this may be accounted for by religiosity, which was predictive of change beliefs, but, other than that, the present research couldn’t go much farther. Similarly, the question remains of whether people see changes as potentially long-lasting. You could perhaps imagine yourself reducing your weight to restore what’s considered a healthy BMI, but “often there is a clear return to the original BMI” (p. 6).
To sum up, being able to identify your own change beliefs can be a worthwhile exercise in and of itself. Reflecting on how you’ve changed so far can inform this process, but so can taking a page from the high self-esteem/high optimism group. Thinking about yourself as getting better in the future could potentially lead to the types of changes that can make these thoughts a reality.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202303/can-thinking-about-change-help-you-actually-change
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The Stigma of Being Overweight: 7 Core Themes

Research finds that overweight individuals internalize others’ negative views.

The prejudice against overweight people pervades many domains of life, including at school, work, in health care, in popular media, and especially in social relationships. It can also lead to “internalized weight stigma," in which overweight individuals essentially agree with negative stereotypes about having excess weight, and in turn devalue themselves. Put another way, it's when overweight individuals are biased against themselves for how they look.
What are the consequences of internalized weight stigma? This question was the focus of a new study led by Emma Davidsen and her colleagues at the Steno Diabetes Center and the University of Copenhagen, both in Denmark. To pursue this inquiry, Davidsen began by recruiting 10 participants who were overweight (as defined by BMI) through social media channels, including a “fat activist” group on social media and a Department of Bariatric Surgery. From there, the investigators conducted in-depth interviews about the participants’ lived experiences and administered questionnaires about weight-related self-devaluation and distress. The participants’ responses were then analyzed for themes.
What did Davidson and her colleagues find? The results yielded seven themes that reflected self-devaluation and struggle:

1. Devaluation of competencies. Two participants shared that they had doubted their competence and credibility because of stereotypes associated with overweight people. Jane, whose job involved physical activity, said she felt out of place or incompetent because of her weight: “It has definitely been my idea of not fitting in [at work] and my concerns about being skilled enough [at my job] that I could channel into some kind of insecurity about – well if I look like this, how can I stand here and present [my work]?”
2. Self-blame. Six participants blamed themselves for being overweight. They saw themselves as weak-willed for not sticking with diets and felt genetics was just an excuse for their excessive weight, and that overweight individuals should bear personal responsibility. Mary, a healthcare worker, remarked: “I definitely feel that saying overweight is in your genes is a poor excuse. I mean, you don’t get fat by not eating enough, or eating sensibly. I don’t believe in that, and I honestly have the philosophy that people who are using that excuse should be sent to a deserted island and then they wouldn’t stay fat very long.”
The participants also expressed judgment of other overweight people, and felt put off by overweight people who ate dessert or used public transportation rather than riding a bike.
3. Bodily devaluation. Nine of the ten participants devalued their bodies because of their weight; this was especially the case in the context of romantic relationships. One participant said she was trying to lose weight, and didn’t want to get involved romantically until she lost weight because she didn’t feel “at home” in her body. Another participant stayed with a verbally abusive boyfriend because she believed that she wouldn’t be able to attract someone else because of her weight. Yet another respondent said she didn’t feel sexually attractive to her husband.
4. Ambivalence. Six participants expressed concern with the way they perceived themselves, their bodies, and other overweight people. Mary, for example, expressed that despite feeling highly worthy and satisfied with life, she still found difficulty connecting to her body: “I also have some prejudices about being fat myself – that is, the fact that it is rarely upper-class people that are fat. After all, it is often social class 5 where they are. So sometimes I think about it myself. I'm a well-educated woman, and I have some healthy values and stuff like that, and I know what it takes to lose weight, but I still fall into that category, with the fat ones. And I can’t help but question myself. If I can’t even control my own weight, then what kind of human am I?”
5. Anticipated stigma. All participants experienced anticipated discrimination, which refers to the assumptions they made about how other people will think of and react to them because of their weight. Anticipated stigma emerged as an ongoing and deep concern. Simon equated this form of discrimination to his experience of being bullied as a youth: “If something goes wrong when I walk by, or something happens, then I can see them standing and pointing and telling each other about him over there, it's him who takes up two seats in the bus, or it's him who eats more, and it’s him that destroys the world. I can see that, and then I stuff music in my ears, so I do not have to listen to them.”
6. Coping strategies. All participants used avoidance to fend off feeling humiliated or degraded because of how others reacted to their weight. Take Kirsten, who didn’t want to wear short or revealing clothes during the summer: “I don’t find it super fun to change with other people by the public pools, or wear bathing suits, so in that way, I feel limited. [...] I don’t want to show my body, so it has been an extremely long and hot summer when one prefers wearing a lot of layers”
7. Mental well-being. Nine participants shared that “living with a stigmatized body” had a negative impact on their mental health, including anxiety, uneasiness, or anxiety in social situations, loneliness, disordered eating, violence, and reduced self-esteem. Consider Cecilia, who struggled with an intense fear of dying, or thanatophobia. She feared her death would create a scene and call attention to her excessive weight: “I have had quite a lot of anxiety about dying. For example, if I am in the cinema, I can get scared that I am dying [...] but I am not actually afraid of death, I am afraid of causing a scene. Then I think to myself – okay, if I am dying, I just have to die quietly, so no one will notice. Then they can carry me out after the movie.”
The authors conclude their study by noting its limitations, including its small sample size. Still, they maintain, this exploratory work demonstrates the harmful and damaging effects of internalized weight stigma.

reference:
psychology todady

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/head-games/202303/the-stigma-of-being-overweight-7-core-themes
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What Has Caused the Long Decline in Kids’ Mental Health?

New review of evidence points to increased supervision, decreased independence

I begin with two well-established facts:
1. Over the past four or five decades there has been a gradual, but overall huge decline in the freedom of children and even teens to play, roam, and engage in any activities away from direct adult oversight and control. Long gone are the days when 5-year-olds walked by themselves or with friends to kindergarten, or kids of all ages could be seen playing in parks or vacant lots with no adults around, or 12-year-olds had paper routes or other responsible jobs they managed themselves. (For more on this, see here.)
2. Over these same decades, there has been a gradual, but overall huge increase in anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and actual suicides among children and teens. The rates of all of these are now roughly eight to ten times higher than they were half a century or more ago.
As an illustration of the extent of this crisis, a 2019 survey by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) found that, over the previous year, 36.7 percent of U.S. high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 18.8 percent seriously considered suicide, 15.7 percent made a suicide plan, 8.9 percent attempted suicide one or more times, and 2.5 percent made a suicide attempt requiring medical treatment (Bitsko et al., 2022). Note that this was before COVID.
In a new Journal of Pediatrics article, my co-authors and I contend that the first fact is a major cause of the second.
For years, I have been arguing that this correlation, over time, between the decline in independent activity and the decline in mental health is one of cause and effect (e.g. here and here). Lack of freedom to behave independently and unsupervised causes mental anguish. Put another way, children’s and teens’ mental health depends on their being allowed increasing degrees of independent activity as they grow.
Recently, along with colleagues David Lancy (an anthropologist who has studied children worldwide) and David Bjorklund (a developmental psychologist who has authored textbooks on children’s cognitive development), I created a summary of the various lines of evidence supporting this causal hypothesis and submitted it the Journal of Pediatrics. We submitted it there because we wanted pediatricians to become aware of children’s needs for independent activity, so they might talk with parents about those needs.
The article has now been accepted for publication, with the title "Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Wellbeing: Summary of the Evidence." It will appear soon in print and is currently available (here) in pre-publication manuscript form.
Our article brings together dozens of research studies showing that free play and other forms of independent activity promote children’s happiness not only in the short run, because independence makes children happy, but also in the long run, because independent activities promote the growth of mental capacities for coping effectively with life’s inevitable stressors. Through independent activities, where they must solve their own problems, children acquire the courage, confidence, and competence they need to face the bumps in the road of life with equanimity and effective action rather than panic or the feelings of helplessness that underlie depression.
We suggest in the article that our current societal concern for children’s immediate safety has overwhelmed and flooded out our historical understanding that children need increasing amounts of independent activity as they grow, to develop the character traits they need for mental health.
Our hope is that our article will encourage parents and society in general to balance concern for safety with the needs of children and teens for independent, unsupervised, moderately risky activity. We suggest that parents and children think together about activities the child might engage in independently, such as outdoor neighborhood play, independent travel in the neighborhood or city, running errands for the family, or a part-time job.
Parents might get together with other parents to arrange times and places where their children can play together in the neighborhood, with an adult watching for safety if that is felt necessary, but with minimal or no adult intervention. Parents might ask their child or teen, “What would you like to do independently?” and follow that with a discussion about how to do that, or something close to it, safely. We also suggest ways that pediatricians, family doctors, and public policymakers can help to promote such changes, and we also refer to the nonprofit organization Let Grow as a resource for ideas about how to bring more childhood independence into homes, schools, and communities.
And now, what do you think about this? … This blog is, in part, a forum for discussion. Your questions, thoughts, stories, and opinions are treated respectfully by me and other readers, regardless of the degree to which we agree or disagree. Psychology Today no longer accepts comments on this site, but you can comment by going to my Facebook profile, where you will see a link to this post. If you don't see this post near the top of my timeline, just put the title of the post into the search option (click on the three-dot icon at the top of the timeline and then on the search icon that appears in the menu) and it will come up. By following me on Facebook you can comment on all of my posts and see others' comments. The discussion is often very interesting.

reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/freedom-to-learn/202303/what-has-caused-the-long-decline-in-kids-mental-health
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Why Midlife Isn’t as Stressful as You Think It Might Be

New research on stress shows that life gets better once you’re past your 20s.

The concept of the midlife crisis prevails in the popular literature and is, in fact, so ingrained that the phrase, “I’m having a midlife crisis” is a common reason given for any and all unusual behavior in an adult anywhere from 30 to 50 or 55 years of age. However, the research literature consistently fails to support its validity. The data challenging the notion appear regularly in academic journals, but these appear to have little impact on the public’s perception of its universality. The bottom line from this work is that personality and related psychological qualities such as depression and anxiety show no discernible peaks or valleys that are clearly tied to midlife.
The latest study to enter into the academic discourse takes a new approach by examining daily stress levels of adults ranging in age from the early 20s to late 70s. As noted by Pennsylvania State University’s David Almeida and colleagues (2023), “when considering psychological factors related to mental and physical health, few are as pervasive as stress” (p. 515). If any quality would be key to understanding midlife changes, then, stress would seem to be a primary candidate. This study’s findings, as you will learn, add weight to the argument that midlife is a time of gradual change rather than crisis. Additional findings also help answer the question of who is most stressed and when.

Using Daily Diaries to Measure Stress

Almeida and his fellow researchers in this groundbreaking study had as their data source the vast repository known as the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE). The nearly 34,000 data points from their sample of 2,845 adults were gathered from three “bursts” of eight consecutive days’ worth of ratings on frequency of stressful events and emotional reactions to those events. Respondents provided their ratings at the end of each 24-hour period over the eight-day span, and they did so three times across the 20 years of the study.

You can get a sense of what these ratings looked like by taking stock of your own stressors in the categories of arguments, avoiding arguments, work overloads, home overloads, network stressors (friends or family members), and miscellaneous or “other.” The research team used the criterion of having at least one stressor in a day to count as a “stress day.” It may not surprise you to learn that at least one stressor was reported by the sample participants on 39 percent of all possible days.
Next, think about how this stressful event impacted your emotions. The Penn State–led study provided respondents with these possible affective reactions: fidgety, nervous, worthless, so sad that nothing could cheer you up, everything was an effort, and hopeless. The ratings to be used for these emotions were from 0 (none of the time) to 4 (all of the time).
The advantage of the daily diary approach is that it taps into stress levels in real-time rather than relying on some aggregate estimate that respondents might provide based on their recall of what their stress levels tend to be like. Again, putting yourself in the place of these respondents, how might you lump all your stressors and emotional reactions to those stressors into one global rating rather than thinking more specifically about individual events? The chances are that your global ratings would be less accurate but also more difficult to make.

The 20-Year Trajectory of Stress

Feeding their daily diary ratings into their statistical software, which also took into account the impact of sex, education, and race on age-related patterns, the authors arrived at the incontrovertible conclusions that not only did older adults report fewer stressful days but also that overall stressful events declined by a remarkable 11 percent over the course of the 20-year period.
Thus, stressful events of all kinds showed a pronounced downward progression from the decades of the 20s to the 70s. Rather than midlife representing a peak of stress exposure, it was only a waystation downhill from about 50 percent of days with stress in the mid-20s to 25 percent for those in their late 70s, with negative affect showing a similar de-escalation across the decades.
What’s more, looking longitudinally over the two decades of the study, it appeared that the original 20-somethings were also at their high point of stress and stress reactivity. That 11 percent decline over the sample as a whole actually represented an average. For younger adults, the decline was 47 percent. In the words of the authors, for young adults, “their stress profile improves as they age” (p. 520).
Another feature of the midlife data that further challenges the idea of the midlife crisis was the flattening of the stress reactivity curve. Indeed, for participants ages 55 and older, there was no further dip in the degree to which stressors bothered them.
One might conclude, then, that when it comes to stress over the adult years, it is “all downhill,” but in this case, the downhill is in a positive direction. If, as the authors conclude, “stress is a speedometer of our life course,” that speedometer shows a clear slowing, so that “growing older may allow us to lead less stressful lives” (p. 522).

What If You’re Over 25 and Still Stressed?

It’s possible that, despite all the evidence showing the beneficial effects of growing older on stress levels, you as an individual are bucking the trend. It may or may not be reassuring to think that if you just wait long enough, your stress speedometer may eventually reach a pleasant cruising level. In the meantime, there are steps you can take to help lower both your stress exposure and reactivity.
Borrowing a page from the less-stressed older adults, and in line with interpretations of their data that the authors offer, it may be worthwhile to consider adopting a “positivity bias.” Your life may be full of what seem like insurmountable stressful events, but is there some way to offset them? Can you, as some older adults appear able to do, balance those off with positive situations that you purposefully seek out?
From another perspective, the Almeida et al. study is consistent with the general cognitive model of stress appraisal, which emphasizes the interpretations that people make of the events in their lives as causes of psychological turmoil. Can you reframe a so-called “negative event,” such as an argument with your partner, as a step toward greater mutual understanding?
It may also be reassuring to look at the data from this study as providing their own unique counterpoint to the drumbeat of midlife crisis messages in the popular media. Viewing your own development as a continuous process rather than a set of discrete stages can help you regard stressors not as inevitable features of your life but as points along the way toward greater mastery over your emotional well-being.
To sum up, knowing the facts about midlife can only help you separate fact from fiction as you seek a path that will not only ease stress but also put you on the path to fulfillment.

 reference:
psychology today

link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/raising-humans-in-a-digital-world/202303/new-report-reveals-how-teen-girls-feel-about-social
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13 Questions That Measure “Flow Proneness” in Daily Life

Take this 13-item survey to learn if you are prone to flow.

In 1975, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduced the concept of flow in his groundbreaking book, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play. From the outset, he was interested in identifying why some people are more prone to having flow-state experiences than others, which led to a focus on "autotelics."
What Does It Mean to Be Autotelic?
Autotelic means "an activity or creative work that has an end or purpose in and of itself." Autotelics are people with autotelic personality traits. So-called "autotelics" find purpose and pleasure solely in the process of doing an activity, regardless of external rewards or accolades.

Csikszentmihalyi's early research cultivated his theory that autotelics are more likely to experience flow and to experience flow states more intensely than those who don't have an autotelic personality. For autotelics, losing oneself in the flow zone is often an autotelic experience, regardless of the activity.

In a 2012 paper about how the Big Five personality traits relate to people's proneness for experiencing flow in everyday life, Csikszentmihalyi and co-authors concluded that "Flow proneness is associated with low neuroticism and high conscientiousness."

Autotelic Personality Traits Are Back in the Spotlight
In 2023, almost 50 years after the concept of "flow proneness" was introduced, two psychologists in Norway unveiled a 13-item questionnaire that measures people's proneness for flow-state experiences in daily life based on autotelic traits.

Magdalena Elnes and Hermundur Sigmundsson of NTNU's department of psychology call their new test the General Flow Proneness Scale (Elnes and Sigmundsson, 2023). This 13-item scale for assessing flow proneness was published on February 20 in the open-access journal SAGE Open.

According to the authors, "Our General Flow Proneness Scale is a self-report questionnaire with 13 items focusing on preference for challenge, ability [to balance] skills and challenges, frequent flow experiences, and development of interests." In a March 2023 news release, Sigmundsson said that the survey "is easy to administer and can be used in several different contexts."
For their recent study on flow proneness in daily life, Elnes and Sigmundsson had 228 people between 18-76 years of age complete the survey below:

The 13-Item General Flow Proneness Scale
I enjoy challenging tasks/activities that require a lot of focus.
When I'm focused on a task/activity, I tend to forget my surroundings (other people, time, and place).
I usually experience a good flow when I do something (things are neither too easy nor too difficult for me).
I have several different areas of interest.
It's difficult for me to quit or walk away from a project I'm currently working on.
I become stressed in the face of difficult/challenging tasks.
It's difficult for me to maintain concentration over time.
I quickly become tired of the things I do.
I am usually satisfied with the results of my efforts across various tasks (I experience feelings of mastery).
I often forget to take a break when I focus on something.
I get bored easily.
My daily tasks are exhausting rather than stimulating.
I develop an interest in most things I do in life.
How would you respond to these 13 prompts? When over 200 Norwegian study participants responded to this 13-item scale, Elnes and Sigmundsson asked each person to choose which numbered items described them best. Respondents also rated their feelings about each line item using a 1 to 5 Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree).

"The goal was to test whether flow proneness could be limited to specific characteristics of the autotelic personality, including deep concentration ability or attentional control, perception and adjustment of challenge, in addition to the development of interests and enjoyment," the authors explain their paper's discussion section.

Flow Proneness and Autotelic Personality Traits Go Hand in Hand
The latest (2023) study on flow proneness suggests that Csikszentmihalyi was definitely onto something when he posited in 1975 that "autotelics" are more prone to experiencing flow than people who don't have autotelic personality traits.

In their paper's conclusion, Elnes and Sigmundsson write, "Our current research can be considered important within the literature on the topic of flow, and the field of positive psychology in general, and may be used in future studies for the exploration of the autotelic personality."

The authors note that more evidence is needed to support the validity of their recently unveiled General Flow Proneness Scale. In closing, they encourage people to use the 13 prompts as a tool that sheds light on how certain autotelic personality traits can help individuals increase their flow proneness in daily life.

Reference : 
Psychology today
link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/202303/13-questions-that-measure-flow-proneness-in-daily-life
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New report reveals how teen girls feel about social media

KEY POINTS

  • Teen girls are more likely to say that their lives would be “worse,” rather than “better,” without social media.
  • Educating youth on how to use technology safely is an overlooked solution.
  • Social media platforms should be made safer for all teens, especially for the most vulnerable ones.

The impact of social media on the well-being of teens is a hotly debated topic, and rightly so. Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly three in five U.S. teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021—double that of boys, representing a nearly 60 percent increase and the highest level reported over the past decade.

Social media is usually blamed for this problem, even though research indicates that it has both positive and negative effects on adolescent well-being (and, in some studies, no impact). Additionally, the impact of social media depends largely upon the teen in question. Immediate action is being taken to protect some kids from its harm. In Utah, for example, a new law will require minors to obtain the consent of a guardian to use social media platforms.

Whatever you believe about social media’s impact on mental health, those colorful little icons on your phone won’t be vanishing any time soon. Plus, stealthy kids will always find a way to log on to them whether they are “allowed” to or not. These kids need protection, too; sometimes they are the ones who need it the most.

Teen voices are rarely heard, or listened to, in this debate about their well-being and social media, even though they are the ones our decisions will impact the most.

New Common Sense Media Report Listens to Teen Girls

A report just released by the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media— “Teens and Mental Health: How Girls Really Feel About Social Media”—asks teen girls themselves how they feel about social media. The study focuses on five popular platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and messaging apps. Unsurprisingly, the girls surveyed use social media a lot, and, as adults worry that it is harming them, that’s not what they think:

Girls are more likely to say that their lives would be ‘worse,’ rather than ‘better,’ without social media, and they cite frequent positive experiences, ranging from identity affirmation to social connection and access to helpful mental health resources and information

But their experiences with social media, positive and negative, are mixed. Here are some examples:

  • The impact of social media on teen girls (either positive or negative) is related to their level of depression. Nearly four in 10 girls (38 percent) surveyed reported having symptoms of depression. Those with the highest levels of depression (moderate to severe) “were more likely than girls without depressive symptoms to say that YouTube (10 percent vs. 4 percent), Instagram (26 percent vs. 17 percent), and messaging apps (19 percent vs. 8 percent) have had a mostly negative impact on people their age.” This group was also “more likely to say that their lives would be ‘better’ without each social media platform.” On the other hand, girls with mild depressive symptoms were “more likely to say their lives would be worse without YouTube (53 percent vs. 38 percent), TikTok (41 percent vs. 33 percent), Snapchat (38 percent vs. 26 percent), and messaging apps (52 percent vs. 42 percent).” Interestingly, the social media app typically considered to have a negative impact on mental health (Instagram) is not on this list.
  • Teens of color encounter both positive and negative experiences. According to the report, a “majority of adolescent girls of color reported coming across positive or identity-affirming content related to race across platforms.” At the same time, approximately “two-thirds of girls of color who use TikTok (66 percent) and Instagram (64 percent) report having ever come across racist content on these platforms, with one in five saying they come across it daily or more.”
  • LGBTQ+ teens also encounter positive and negative experiences online. Hate speech related to sexual and gender identity is frequently experienced by LGBTQ+ girls who use social media, according to the report. However, this same population is also “more likely than their non-LGBTQ+ peers to say that they frequently connect with others who share their interests or identities.”
  • Mental health information is both harmful and helpful. The report finds that “four in 10 girls who use Instagram (41 percent) and TikTok (39 percent) report coming across harmful suicide-related content at least monthly on these platforms.” Paradoxically, “the majority of girls report regularly coming across helpful mental health information and resources…with more than half of users of TikTok (60 percent), Instagram (56 percent), Snapchat (52 percent), and YouTube (55 percent) saying they see this content at least monthly.” Additionally, girls “with depressive symptoms were more likely to come across both harmful suicide-related content and helpful mental health content, compared to girls with no depressive symptoms.” (This is possibly due to algorithms that detect their interest in the topic.)

The report also pinpoints what girls find “challenging.” For example, they say they feel “addicted” to TikTok, and say they are “more likely to report unwanted contact by strangers on Instagram and Snapchat.” They also share opinions on design features indicating, for example, that “location sharing” and “public accounts” are features they find “mostly negative.”

So, What’s the Verdict? Is Social Media Good or Bad for the Mental Health of Teen Girls?

The big takeaway from this report and the answer to this question are, yes. It’s both. For every girl that social media helps, there’s a girl it harms. Every positive social media experience seems to be counterbalanced by a negative one. And, often, the same girl experiences both.

But the fact remains that social media is not going away any time soon. And even if we can keep teens from using it today (good luck), they will likely use it eventually, either for pleasure or for work (probably both). But one girl harmed is one too many. Clearly, we have to do something to make social media safer for all of them, especially for the most vulnerable.

The most logical path forward is for social media companies to implement the changes and safeguards that many have been calling for. But that path generally requires legislative action, and that takes time.

A faster approach is a rarely discussed one—education. We should be teaching youth how to avoid many of the challenges this report shows they are clearly aware of. They should know how to manage their privacy, block unwanted contacts, filter objectionable content, outsmart algorithms, and use the safety settings many social media apps already offer. Teens empowered with this knowledge will be able to make their own online experiences safer as they wait for us to catch up. Just ask them.

reference: psychology today

link:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/raising-humans-in-a-digital-world/202303/new-report-reveals-how-teen-girls-feel-about-social

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behaviors that most shape the future of a relationship”>3 Behaviors That Most Shape the Future of a Relationship

Why Relationships Matter

Love is one of the most profound emotions known to human beings. There are many kinds of love, but many people seek its expression in a romantic relationship with a compatible partner (or partners). For these individuals, romantic relationships comprise one of the most meaningful aspects of life, and are a source of deep fulfillment.

While need for human connection appears to be innate, the ability to form healthy, loving relationships is learned. Some evidence suggests that the ability to form a stable relationship starts to form in infancy, in a child's earliest experiences with a caregiver who reliably meets the infant's needs for food, care, warmth, protection, stimulation, and social contact. Such relationships are not destiny, but they are theorized to establish deeply ingrained patterns of relating to others. The end of a relationship, however, is often a source of great psychological anguish.
How to Build a Healthy Relationship
Maintaining a strong relationship requires constant care and communication, and certain traits have been shown to be especially important for fostering healthy relationships. Each individual should, for starters, feel confident that their partner is willing to devote time and attention to the other. They must both also be committed to accommodating their differences, even as those change over time.
In the 21st century, good relationships are generally marked by emotional and physical fairness, particularly in the distribution of chores necessary to maintain a household. Partners in strong relationships also feel grateful for one another, openly provide and receive affection, and engage in honest discussions about sex.
In good relationships, partners try to afford their partner the benefit of the doubt, which creates a sense of being on the same team. This feeling, maintained over the long term, can help couples overcome the challenges they will inevitably face together.
How to Find Love
Finding a partner with whom to share a life is a wonderful but frequently difficult process. Whether it's conducted online or in-person, the search will likely push an individual into unfamiliar settings to encounter potential partners. To be successful, it is often necessary to go outside of one's comfort zone.

Determining whether a particular person is suitable as a potential mate, and whether a connection reflects temporary infatuation or true love, can challenging, but research suggests that there are revealing clues in behavior.

One possibly counterintuitive indicator of a potential match is one's sense of self. Someone who would make a good partner may push an individual to discover new activities or beliefs that expand their own self-concept. Another early signifier may be stress: Repeatedly interacting with someone whose impression matters deeply to us can fuel anxiety. Other positive indicators include being highly motivated to see the person and investing a significant amount of time, emotion, and energy into the budding relationship
How Relationships Fail
Every relationship represents a leap of faith for at least one partner, and even in the happiest couples, the very traits that once attracted them to each other can eventually become annoyances that drive them apart. Acquiring the skills to make a connection last is hard work, and threats may spring up without notice. In short-term, casual relationships, neither partner may see a truly viable long-term future together, but often only one takes action, in some cases ghosting the other, walking out of their lives with no communication, not even a text.

For some couples, infidelity is both the first and last straw, but a surprising number of relationships survive betrayal, some only to have their connection upended by everyday threats such as a loss of interest in physical intimacy, or a waning of positive feeling in the wake of constant criticism, contempt, or defensiveness. Even staying together for decades is no guarantee that a couple will remain connected: The divorce rate for couples over 50 has doubled since 1990.

Some people can walk away from years of marriage and instantly feel unburdened. For others, the end of a relationship that lasted just a few dates can trigger emotional trauma that lingers for years. However a breakup plays out, it can be a major stressor with an effect on ego and self-esteem that cannot be ignored.

Reference 
Psychology Today
Link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/relationships
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Anti_Inflammatory Diet

Foods you should eat to help fight inflammation

You might be surprised to learn that diet plays an important role in chronic inflammation-- digestive bacteria release chemicals that may spur or suppress inflammation. The types of bacteria that populate our gut and their chemical byproducts vary according to the foods we eat. Some foods encourage the growth of bacteria that stimulate inflammation, while others promote the growth of bacteria that help suppress it.
Here are some of the foods and beverages that have been linked to less inflammation and reduced risk for chronic diseases:

    Fruits and vegetables. Most fruits and brightly colored vegetables naturally contain high levels of antioxidants and polyphenols—potentially protective compounds found in plants.
    Nuts and seeds. Studies have found that consuming nuts and seeds is associated with reduced markers of inflammation and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
    Beverages. The polyphenols in coffee and the flavonols in cocoa are thought to have anti-inflammatory properties. Green tea is also rich in both polyphenols and antioxidants.
Studies have shown that polyphenols have multiple anti-inflammatory properties. A review published in the British Journal of Nutrition summarized a number of studies supporting the notion that dietary polyphenols may lower inflammation in the body and improve the function of cells that line blood vessels. Foods high in polyphenols include onions, turmeric, red grapes, green tea, cherries, and plums, as well as dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, and collard greens.
In addition, olive oil, flaxseed oil, and fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel offer healthy doses of omega-3 fatty acids, which have long been shown to reduce inflammation.
Foods that can fuel inflammation
The foods that contribute to inflammation are the same ones generally considered bad for other aspects of health. These include sugary sodas and refined carbohydrates (like white bread and pasta), as well as red meat and processed meats.

Such unhealthy foods are also likely to contribute to weight gain, which is itself a risk factor for inflammation. In addition, certain components or ingredients in processed foods, like the emulsifiers added to ice cream, may have effects on inflammation.

The key to reducing inflammation with diet

To practice anti-inflammatory eating, it’s best to focus on an overall healthy diet rather than singling out individual "good" and "bad" foods. In general, a healthy diet means one that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish, and healthy oils, and limits food loaded with simple sugars (like soda and candy), beverages that contain high-fructose corn syrup (like juice drinks and sports drinks), and refined carbohydrates.
7 Simple Steps
Step #1: Eat to beat inflammation. Harvard experts warn that many “anti-inflammatory diets” are not grounded in science.  In this Special Report, you’ll discover the three best diet choices—plus essential food “do’s and don’ts” to help suppress inflammation levels. 

Step #2: Get moving! Fighting Inflammation reveals how much aerobic exercise (surprisingly little!)it takes to lower inflammation levels—and how too much exercise may actually provoke an inflammatory response. 

Step #3: Manage your weight. Discover the simple strategies to help you zero in on reducing abdominal fat—the kind that produces pro-inflammatory chemicals. For example, you’ll learn surprising no-pain secrets to help reduce sugar in your diet. 

Step #4: Get enough sleep. Inadequate sleep not only robs you of energy and productivity it also elevates inflammation—which is especially hazardous to heart health. Fighting Inflammation reveals 4 simple steps to help you get a healthier and more refreshing night’s sleep!

Step #5: Stop smoking. Kicking the habit can result in a dramatic reduction in inflammation levels within just a few weeks, experts say. Even if you’ve tried to quit before, the steps revealed in this Special Report can help you succeed!

Step #6: Limit alcohol use. When it comes to inflammation, alcohol can be either your friend or foe. Find out in this Special Report why a little alcohol may be helpful and how much is over the line for keeping inflammation in check.

Step #7: Conquer chronic stress. Chronic stress can spark the development of inflammation and cause flare-ups of problems like rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, depression and inflammatory bowel disease. Fighting Inflammation reveals 10 powerful ways to help lower unhealthy stress. 

Whether you’re aiming to prevent cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, or other conditions connected to chronic inflammation, the sooner you incorporate these seven steps into your life, the better!

Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/fighting-inflammation?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=A%2FB%20Test%205063%20Part%2055259%3A%20HB20230119-Inflammation_5063&utm_id=4657227&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4657227
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Cause of Shoulder Pain

Worsening shoulder pain can keep you from enjoying daily activities. Understanding what’s wrong is the first step to finding relief.

Dear Reader,

Shoulder pain can seem like a mild annoyance at first...but it can quickly escalate and restrict your movement, making routine activities difficult and painful.
It’s time to seek relief.
In Healing Shoulder Pain, Harvard Medical School experts guide you through the process of identify the cause of shoulder pain and mobility loss and how to find the most appropriate treatment.
Are you experiencing minor shoulder pain or major shoulder pain?
Minor shoulder pain that is related to overexertion or a small injury often can be easily managed on your own at home.

On the other hand, severe pain and limited motion in the shoulder can disrupt your life and warrants a call to your doctor — injuries that might have fractured a bone or torn soft tissue requires urgent care.

In other words, you can’t just shrug off shoulder pain

Shoulder problems rarely go away on their own. Which is why, Healing Shoulder Pain will show you how to speed their departure with information on specific diagnoses and tailored treatments.

You’ll discover:

    How to accurately troubleshoot the condition triggering your pain

    The telltale symptoms that distinguish tendinitis from bursitis

    How to effectively and safely achieve pain relief

    Why you may be increasingly vulnerable to shoulder impingement

    What condition a “Popeye muscle” bulge may signal

    The occasional unrecognized signs of a rotator cuff tear

    How to maintain flexibility and renewed range-of-motion

    And so much more!

Also included in this report is a special section, Exercises to prevent and relieve shoulder pain, which includes safe and effective workouts you can do at home.
You’ll understand the latest advances in shoulder surgery.
The report includes techniques known to help reverse and repair damage...and tips to strengthen and protect your shoulder’s mobility and durability.
You’ll also discover the important considerations when choosing a surgical procedure...what to expect before, during, and after surgery...and the breakthroughs that are lessening pain and speeding recovery.

Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/shoulder-pain-jan2023-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=A%2FB%20Test%205193%20Part%2056699%3A%20PA20230127-%20ShoulderPain_5193&utm_id=4719511&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4719511
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Get off Your Diet and Loose Weight for GOOD

Say goodbye to the yo-yo dieting treadmill and lose weight with NO calorie-counting… NO starvation… and NO deprivation

Dear Reader,

Most of us have been on a weight-loss diet at one time or another. And we’ve all likely enjoyed the sweet taste of success. But then life happens and, slowly but surely, the pounds creep back on and we’re back where we started from...or even worse. Sound familiar?
Now there’s a better way to drop 10, 20, 30 pounds or more and keep them off without dieting.
How? Simply by incorporating some of the latest evidence-based strategies that allow you to custom-tailor a healthy weight loss plan that works best for you — with no calorie-counting, and no starvation or deprivation.
Simple strategies for weight loss success
While many weight loss programs focus on low-fat or low-carb diets or “miracle weight-loss foods” that you have to scrupulously follow, this Online Course helps you customize a plan that you can live with to reach your weight loss goals. For example, you’ll discover:

    Foods that help protect your gut against obesity-causing bacteria in as little as one day

    How to instantly spot hidden sugars in your diet that can lead to obesity and diabetes

    10 surprising ways to get more weight-busting fiber in your diet

    9 kitchen tricks to help you slim down your meals without sacrificing an ounce of flavor

    A meal planning guide for tasty, nutritious meals guaranteed to keep you satisfied so you’ll never feel deprived

    Good fats/bad fats — how to tell which is which for weight loss and better health

    The brain-confusing problem with artificially sweetened food and drinks

    Simple tricks that let you say “no” to cravings and save hundreds of calories

    The powerful “mindful eating” strategy shown to reduce hunger and binge-eating

    3 simple stressbusters that help stymie stress eating

    12 satisfying snacks that help you control hunger between meals

    How to short-circuit the trigger that can lead to calorie-laden comfort eating

    4 simple habits of people who lose weight and keep it off

Get a sneak peek at what you’ll discover in Lose Weight and Keep It Off
PLUS: You’ll learn the truth behind commercial weight loss plans, weight loss supplements and anti-obesity drugs. You’ll get expert tips to maintain your weight-loss motivation. You’ll discover important considerations about weight-loss surgery. And so much more.
The Harvard Lose Weight and Keep It Off Online Course is overflowing with simple eating plans, practical hints and tips, food charts, and more — all the practical tools you need to help you reach and maintain your ideal weight.
Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/lose-weight-and-keep-it-off-ecourse-feb2021-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EL20230128-WeighLess&utm_id=4728294&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4728294
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How to confidently make the most informed, intelligent, and beneficial decisions for large and small health decisions

from the experts at the prestigious Harvard Medical School.

    Man-to-man: Straight talk about sex, back pain, heart health, prostate health, memory concerns, and more.
    New treatments: Updates about new drugs, surgical procedures, and at-home remedies.
    Practical: Pros and cons help you make the best, most informed decisions about your health.
    Unlimited digital access to the latest research and breakthroughs.

Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/harvard-mens-health-watch-jan2023-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=A%2FB%20Test%205195%20Part%2056965%3A%20NL20230130-MensHealthWatch_5195&utm_id=4745538&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4745538
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Discover how to keep your brain its healthiest best!

Learn the 6 simple steps that can enhance your mental stamina, boost your memory, and provide added years of robust cognitive fitness.

Dear Reader,

Cognitive fitness goes far beyond just memory. It embraces thinking, learning, recognition, and sound decision-making. Cognitive fitness is the bedrock of a rewarding and self-sufficient life.
You can be “brain-healthy” for life!
This Special Health Report will show you how to sidestep threats to your brain’s wellness. You’ll learn how to build a “cognitive reserve” to address your brain’s changes. And most of all, you’ll gain the tools to shape and secure lasting and fulfilling cognitive vitality.
As never before, you can attain enduring brain health. Doctors at Harvard Medical School have identified six steps, which together can spur and protect cognitive fitness.
This multi-pronged brain fitness program includes and integrates proven approaches like optimal nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, social interaction, sleep, and stimulating activities.
A program that makes good sense — and designed for your success!
This guide will equip you to give your brain the attention it needs to stay at its best. The program will help you maintain a responsive memory, sustain your learning abilities, and remain confident that your mental skills will continue to serve you well.
This guide shares the wisest choices to defend your brain against the effects of aging. At the heart of the program are modest — but specific — changes in your diet, exercise regimen, and your lifestyle.
You’ll master the strategies that will stimulate your thinking!
You’ll be introduced to easy-to-follow brain-friendly diets. You’ll find five delicious foods linked to better brainpower. And you'll learn a little-known secret to maximizing exercise’s cognitive benefits.

You’ll find tips to ease stress and to get the sleep essential for memory. You’ll learn the keys to a brain-power nap, 10 tested methods to manage stress, and tricks to beat insomnia naturally.

The Special Health Report will help you strengthen your brain’s agility and nurture the personal interactions that keep your mind engaged. You’ll be briefed on techniques to supercharge your mental workouts, effective ways to foster an invigorating social network, and much more.
Don’t wait. See this empowering report for yourself. After all, there’s nothing better than making up your own mind!
In A Guide to Cognitive Fitness, you’ll find...
✓ 	Cognitive fitness: Your No. 1 health goal
✓ 	How cognitive function is shaped over a lifetime
✓ 	STEP 1: Eat a plant-based diet
✓ 	STEP 2: Exercise regularly
✓ 	STEP 3: Get enough sleep
✓ 	STEP 4: Challenge your brain
✓ 	And more!

Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/a-guide-to-cognitive-fitness?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PA20230131-CognitiveFitness&utm_id=4750926&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4750926
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Why People Over 60 Are Now
Hearing Whispers

Harvard doctors reveal the truth about hearing loss… what to do if your hearing is a problem… plus how to enjoy better hearing at any age

Dear Reader,

Imagine if there were ways to improve your hearing so you could hear as well as you did decades ago.
So you could easily hear what people are saying at a loud party… or soft sounds like your grandchild’s whispered secret.
And you’d never have to suffer from the embarrassment of needing to ask people to repeat themselves. Or worry about not hearing something that could put you in danger, like a smoke alarm.
Here’s great news. You can regain your hearing. And there are proven ways to hold on to your hearing. Now Harvard Medical School doctors reveal all the surprising facts about hearing loss in their Special Health Report Coping with Hearing Loss, A guide to prevention and treatment.

Do you really need a hearing aid?

When most people think about a hearing aid, they picture big embarrassing contraptions stuck on their ears. Even worse, over the years you may have noticed that hearing aids didn’t seem to work well for other people. So how well could they work for you?
Well, there have been a lot of advances in the last few years. In this report you’ll discover that some new hearing aids are so tiny, no one can see them. You’ll also learn about new breakthroughs in hearing aid technology that make sounds crisp and clear. Plus you’ll find out about solutions like surgery that can treat your hearing loss if a hearing aid isn’t right for you.
Best of all, you’ll know all the secrets to preventing hearing loss — so you’ll never miss out on a good joke’s punch line, an important word in a conversation, or the sweet sound of birdsong in the morning.
In this special report, you’ll find out the latest, proven solutions including:

    How to stop hearing the ringing in your ears that’s driving you crazy

    The do-it-yourself 5-minute hearing test

    Why you should never buy a hearing aid through the internet or a magazine ad

    The “magic number” for protecting your precious hearing

    How to choose the best hearing aid that fits your lifestyle

    8 medications to avoid that can give you permanent hearing loss

    And much more!

Coping with Hearing Loss, A guide to prevention and treatment gives you all the must-know facts about hearing loss. You’ll find out all the ways to treat hearing loss so you can regain your hearing. Even better, you’ll discover the secrets to preventing hearing loss. So you can enjoy an active social life and hear well at any age.
Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/hearing-loss-apr2020-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PA20230131-Hearing&utm_id=4750931&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4750931
/9 Comments/by
,

Secrets of Probiotics

Get Your Gut in Order


Dear Reader,

Probiotics: The very word mystifies many. Worse, it has sparked a sizable supply of stubborn myths.

    You may have seen reports saying probiotics cause digestive issues.

    You may have heard all yogurts are equal sources of probiotics.

    You may think that foods containing probiotics are expensive or hard to find.

Science has been debunking these and other probiotics myths for decades. But sorting them out isn’t easy — unless you know where to look and which sources to trust.

“Bad” bacteria can wreak havoc on your health.
Enter probiotics — “good” bacteria that help wage war against harmful microorganisms.

Benefits of Probiotic Foods
ow you can get the truth about probiotics from the experts at Harvard Medical School. They’ve compiled the latest information into a clear, concise guide called Benefits of Probiotic Foods, and it’s available right now.
Confusion reigns
We hear a lot about probiotics these days. More and more, the word is showing up in health headlines and on food packaging. You’re just not sure what probiotics actually are. Or what they do for us. Or where they come from. The general perception of probiotics can be summed up in the title of an old Bob Dylan song: “Mixed-Up Confusion.”
Our e-guide Benefits of Probiotic Foods brings you the most important advantage you can have: clarity. We always want clarity regarding our health. By absorbing plain-language explanations from Harvard’s medical experts, you’ll get it. Our accessible and digestible guide teaches you how probiotics can make a difference in your gut health... and your overall health.
A stronger immune system?


A stronger immune system?

Now more than ever, we worry about our immune system. About our ability to fight viruses. About staying germ-free. About fending off harmful microorganisms we can’t see, smell, or feel. Count probiotics as an ally. Out of literally hundreds of ingestible bacteria classified as probiotics, two strains in particular may help strengthen your immune system: Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.
Harvard Medical School’s experts explain how to identify these health-enhancing probiotics. You’ll learn about others, too — including probiotics that can ease cramps and diarrhea... or neutralize toxins in the gut... or help with lactose digestion... or decrease the oral bacteria that cause tooth decay.
Good vs. Bad
Think about this: The human gut has 100 trillion bacteria — some harmful, some useful. By working probiotics into your diet, you help counterbalance the “bad” bacteria in your gut. Probiotics can provide a boost to your “good” bacteria as they wage war against dangerous organisms.

About those dangerous organisms: You can’t see them or feel them, but they’re there. They invade the human body and are known to cause poor health... serious infections... disease... even death.

    You know about Salmonella, the most common cause of food-related illness in America. Every year in the U.S., Salmonella causes 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths.

    You’ve heard of E. coli, another food-borne illness. E. coli afflicts 265,000 Americans every year and causes 100 deaths.

Probiotics can help provide a natural defense against these and other infection-causing organisms.
That’s not all. Research in this field is new and developing, but studies are showing probiotics may help you avoid digestive ailments and gastrointestinal issues. Furthermore, probiotics may help ease inflammation — a cause of countless ailments from head to toe.
Recent studies also have shown probiotics may help protect against certain cancers... help manage conditions that raise the risk of heart disease... aid recovery from stress... and enhance brain function. Probiotics, studies show, may even aid in weight-loss efforts!

But where do I get probiotics?


But where do I get probiotics?

Let’s start your gut-health education right now. Getting probiotics into your body — and starting the process of combating harmful bacteria — is simple. Make sure your diet includes foods that provide probiotics. Now, in our exclusive guide, you’ll learn about the best sources of probiotics, from the obvious (yogurt) to the unusual (kimchi, a cabbage dish) and everything in between:

    You’ll learn in Benefits of Probiotic Foods about common foods that — because of their probiotics advantage — should have a regular place in your diet.

    You’ll get simple probiotic-rich recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

    We’ll tell you about sauces, dressings, and marinades packed with probiotics.


How much is enough?


How much is enough?

It’s one thing to know about dietary sources of probiotics. But how much probiotic-rich food is enough? Can you consume probiotics if you’re taking antibiotics? And how might women (and new moms) benefit from probiotics?

Harvard medical experts have the answers to these and other questions in Benefits of Probiotic Foods. Click below to order our special guide.

Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/probiotics-oct2021-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OG20230202-Probiotics&utm_id=4774345&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4774345
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Learn how you can treat — and prevent — diverticulosis and diverticulitis…and enjoy renewed colon health!

Find out the “don’t wait” secrets to a lifetime of digestive wellness!

	

 	In Diverticulosis and Diverticulitis you’ll discover:
✓	the four symptoms that mean get medical care NOW!
✓	the one food substitution that can lower diverticulitis risk 20%!
✓	the nut with three times more fiber than almonds
✓	what to ask your doctor before taking a fiber supplement
✓	the drink that can keep you regular — even if it’s decaf!
✓	the best time to exercise for maximum digestive benefit
✓	19 foods that can speed recovery from diverticulitis
	 


Dear Reader,
You know it’s not indigestion. This abdominal pain is different. It is sharp and distinct. You don’t know where it came from. You do know you want it to go away.
Call it a “gut reaction.”
As we age, weaker areas of our colons can develop pea-sized pouches called diverticula. That’s diverticulosis. Diverticulitis occurs when a pouch becomes inflamed or infected, triggering abdominal pain, cramping, nausea. Diverticulitis can cause a hole in your colon that could lead to a life-threatening condition called peritonitis.
Discover the treatments that bring relief and prevent recurrence.
In this downloadable report, Harvard doctors will brief you on the four defining symptoms of diverticulitis and the one essential diagnostic test. You’ll learn the best steps to reduce stress on your digestive system, resolve complications, and speed recovery.
You can end the agony and anxiety of diverticulitis — starting now!
When it comes to your colon, help starts at the top. Adding select foods can dramatically lessen the strain on your digestive system and preclude the formation of diverticula. You may know that fiber is key, but to unlock its fullest benefits, you need to know more. With this new report you will!
The foods to choose for optimal digestive health!
In the Guide you’ll learn easy ways to introduce more fiber to your diet. You’ll read why you need to add both soluble and insoluble fiber to maximize its digestive benefits. And you’ll find the 23 foods — from nuts and berries to grains and greens — that deliver the most fiber per serving.
Plus more steps and strategies to keep your digestive system at its best!
The Guide shares exercises that will keep your digestive system running smoothly. You’ll find tips for maintaining regularity without laxatives...the role of probiotics and fiber supplements... and more.
You can lower your risk of diverticulitis. You can do it effectively. You can do it successfully. Don’t wait. Order your copy of this informative and empowering report today!
	

 	In Diverticulosis and Diverticulitis you’ll discover:
✓	the four symptoms that mean get medical care NOW!
✓	the one food substitution that can lower diverticulitis risk 20%!
✓	the nut with three times more fiber than almonds
✓	what to ask your doctor before taking a fiber supplement
✓	the drink that can keep you regular — even if it’s decaf!
✓	the best time to exercise for maximum digestive benefit
✓	19 foods that can speed recovery from diverticulitis
	 



Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OG20230206-Diverticulitis&utm_id=4800917&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4800917
/0 Comments/by
,

17 heart-healthy strategies to lower your cholesterol effectively and safely!

“Take-charge” techniques that are transforming cholesterol control and giving you renewed protection from a heart attack or stroke

Dear Reader,
If you’ve ever fought high, or even elevated, cholesterol, please send for this new report from Harvard Medical School today. It will show you how you can reduce harmful cholesterol — up to 50%—and do it with confidence and success!
The report is yours risk-free — and here’s the reason why.
Just a 10% drop in LDL cholesterol can mean a 20-30% drop in your risk of a heart attack. We want you to enjoy lower risk when it comes to your heart, so there’s no risk when it comes to this offer!
There are more ways than ever to have less!
Through specific lifestyle changes and with an emerging roster of drug therapies, you can significantly lower LDL levels, dramatically reduce harmful triglycerides, and actually reverse atherosclerosis.
In this just-published report, you will learn sensible, safe, and studied strategies that will help you meet the latest guidelines for cholesterol management and reduced cardiovascular risk.
The answers you need for the cholesterol numbers you want!
Why is it so important to lower cholesterol? What is your risk of a heart attack? How can you assure that your cholesterol numbers are accurate? Managing Your Cholesterol will tell you. You’ll learn about two important protective factors you can ramp up right now...why reduced cholesterol is good for your brain as well as your heart...and how to determine — in 30 seconds — if you truly need a statin.
You’ll discover the smart, powerful, and natural steps that work!
You’ll be introduced to LDL-lowering diets that don’t demand sacrifice. You’ll find tips (and tricks) for better cholesterol balance. You’ll read about three tasty ways to lower triglycerides. Plus, the Report will brief you on four cholesterol-corraling superfoods...a surprising HDL-boosting beverage ...and the one exercise regimen that can lower the proportion of the most dangerous LDL particles.
You’ll find the wisest and safest choices in medications — and more!
You’ll get candid assessments of 30 popular cholesterol-reducing drugs (including low-cost generics.) You’ll learn how to maximize the effectiveness of your statin. You will be introduced to exciting new alternatives, including an injection that shrinks the risk of heart attacks...a medication that stops cholesterol from reaching the bloodstream...and a slick prescription oil that cuts triglycerides in half!
What’s gone up, can come down! Managing Your Cholesterol will show you how. Remember, this empowering Special Report is yours 100% risk-free! Don’t wait. Order today!

The Managing Your Cholesterol Special Health Report includes:
✓	3 easy ways to improve the accuracy of your cholesterol test
✓	The type of cholesterol that is actually good for your arteries
✓	Why some people may be able to take lower doses of a cholesterol-lowering statin
✓	9 heart disease risk factors you can change
✓	Plus, you get a Special Bonus Section: Lifestyle changes to improve your lipid levels
✓	And so much more!


Reference 
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School 
Link:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/cholesterol-nov2014-test?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PA20230214-Cholesterol&utm_id=4850632&dlv-emuid=bff6274f-3d4d-4a2b-866d-3a268afeb5cc&dlv-mlid=4850632
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دانلود رایگان مقاله- ملاحضات اخلاقی در خدمات بالینی میان رشته ای- روان شناس متخصص زوج درمانی خوب- کرج

فایل حاضر همانطور که از نام آن برمی آید در زمینه ملاحضات اخلاقی که نکته حائز اهمیتی در کار می باشد را ارائه می دهد. به جهت اهمیت موضوع مطالعه و عمل به این مقاله به تمامی فعالان حوزه روان شناسی و مشاوره توصیه می شود.

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